The Time Of The Turning
by Raidenshred
Summary: The first book in The Epsilon Trilogy - Yuna embarks on a second pilgrimage to free Spira from the grip of a drought. Meanwhile, a sinister force from the past returns to cast a shadow of evil over the Eternal Calm...
1. Foreword

**Foreword**

  
  
This is the beginning of "Epsilon", a trilogy of novels forming a sequel to Final Fantasy X. It is the most ambitious project I have ever undertaken in writing. It is an epic story of faith, memories, hope, perseverance, racism, oppression, intolerance, war, good, evil and salvation. This is the beginning of the first book, "The Time Of The Turning", chronicling Yuna's second pilgrimage to free Spira from the grip of a drought of both rain and faith, while at the same time encountering the shadow the evil that returns to spread over Spira. The second book, "The Epsilon Tower" takes place immediately after this one, and the third and final book, "The Rising" takes place immediately after that.  
  
Just a quick word about the use of language in this story. Spira is based on Asia, and as such I have included words and phrases from both the Chinese and Japanese languages. In this book, the spoken languages are Zanark (English) and Al Bhed, but the written language that the Spirans use are Japanese Kanji and Katakana, which they read aloud presented in this text as Romanji. Also, sometimes the dialogue is peppered with Chinese phrases and slang words. Any mistakes and inaccuracies in either of these languages are my own (Hey, I'm only a beginner) and if anyone's willing to point out and errors and corrections, please feel free to e-mail me with them.  
  
For the people who read my first story, "Omega", these opening words are for you.  
I can't count the number of e-mails I've received with support for the story, asking for new chapters, or times I've bumped into people on message boards who've said "You're the guy with that fic? Wow, pretty cool, I liked it, man."  
You've thanked me for writing it, but I'm the one who should be thanking you, for giving me something to focus on when I was losing everything else around me. One of the recurring themes of "Omega" was loss, because of how my life was going at that point, when I lost damn near everything myself, was hanging on by a very thin thread, but still survived. This is my thanks to you.  
Writing "Omega" was a very learning experience. If you want, you can think of "Omega" as a story written by a young man just learning how to write stories like this, and "Epsilon" as a product of what I learned.  
  
"Epsilon" is as much a sequel to "Omega" as Final Fantasy X is a sequel to Final Fantasy VIII. While it may not be the same characters, world or story, it's in the same vein, the same element. "Omega" was called Omega simply because Omega means the last, and it was, for me anyway, an ending to the story of FFVIII. However, "Epsilon" is the first direct sequel I've ever written, and the reasons for it's name is twofold. One, because this story is a parallel to "Omega". Themes I explored in "Omega" will here be countered, turned on their side, or explored from the other end of the spectrum. As my beta reader Malice Shaw, put it, "Show all sides of the coin, even the middle."  
And secondly, "Epsilon" is called "Epsilon" because it sits between Alpha and Omega. This story isn't an ending, or a new beginning, it's a continuation. Continuing on is one of many themes in this story, as life goes. There was plenty of loss in "Omega", and a lot in the end of FFX, if you ask me.  
  
Just be aware of this. This is not a resurrection fic. There will be no mystic quest our lively gang will embark on to resurrect fallen comrades. Personally, I don't like resurrection stories at all. I find that despite the author's best intentions, bringing someone back from the dead ultimately defeats the reason for the person's death in the first place. It desensitizes us to the concept of death, and robs us of the lesson it has to teach us about living.  
We all lose people we love, eventually. And we can't cast Phoenix Down on them, or find the legendary Crystal Materia and bring them back. We can only keep on living, and carry their memory with us, as life is. This is what happens in our real world.   
Final Fantasy X, however, has been the most realistic Final Fantasy yet, and so I'll be keeping with that reality the game set. As I said, you won't be seeing the group on a quest to resurrect fallen friends, but you'll see their lives go on, carrying their memories and living their lives. Personally, I find the Pyreflies concept is a great metaphor for this, how everything that dies still lives on as a part of us.  
  
Another theme I'll be exploring is the theme of faith, and I'll be trying to take in as many views as possible on the subject. I know religion and beliefs are sensitive subjects, so just know from the get-go that I never mean to offend anyone. Most of the beliefs and views expressed within this story (particularly those of Yuna) are my own. No offence meant to anyone, if any comes across.  
  
Final Fantasy X was a very daring game, compared to it's predecessors, exploring themes of religious oppression and racial clashing and prejudice, which the other games stayed well clear of. Personally, I commend Squaresoft for tackling the issue of racism through a game. Wakka, Rikku, Yevon and the Al Bhed was a daring concept, but one with a symbolic and optimistic conclusion. Wakka may start out as something of a racist, but it soon becomes apparent that he's just misunderstood, and he and Rikku learn to stand side by side as friends and fight evil (Sin). Yevon, the perpatrators of the senseless racism, hate and persecution of the Al Bhed fall and the Al Bhed live on. There's a Jewish saying that goes "Nations that persecute Jews don't last long." If one looks, you can see the parallel drawn between the unfair treatment of the Al Bhed and the unfair treatment of the Jewish people on our own world.  
And though it may seem out of place to talk about subjects like these in a mere fan-fiction story, we still live in a world where people talk about subjects over coffee like "I think they should do something about those Insert Ethnic Minority Group Here." and two weeks later, two streets away, one of those people is beaten or killed simply for being born. It's no different than when you walk along the Mi'ihen Highroad, press X at the people passing by and hear things like "There sure are a lot of Al Bhed around here. I wonder what they're up to." or "They're up to something, always hiding behind those masks of theirs." Reality and Fantasy go hand in glove, it would seem.  
  
Finally, I have to make my thanks and dedication to some people.  
  


**Dedication:**  
For Dia, for being a true friend, someone who not only just listens to my dreams, but understands them too. This one's for you, for all the talks we've had, and for being my favorite American. =) You're the inspiration, here. Love you loads, Dia.  
For Steph, who just gets cooler and cooler with each passing day. I can't tell you how much your friendship means to me. Love you more than you know.  
For Heather, who's just a wonderful person in too many ways to name, and reminds me of Lulu a lot.  
For Kirsty, for just being there, just being who you are, a great person and a great friend. Love ya loads.  
For Larathia, I enjoy every one of our long discussions about whatever. Without a doubt, you're probably the cleverest writer I know personally. You're a great writer, one of my favorites, but a damn good friend, first.  
For Sadia, another fine friend. Skilled artist, Winamp skinner and poet extraordinaire. =p  
For Ron, also a good friend, and a good man.  
To all the gang at Choc-Boko-Booyaka, or CBB. You guys are just the coolest.  
To Tim Wong and all the others at FantasySquare, back when I first startest doing this gig, thanks.  
And finally, for everyone who read and liked "Omega". This one's for you, with all my thanks. Here we go again…  
  
**Special thanks, for their inspiration:**  
  
Hironobu Sakaguchi  
Yoshinori Kitase  
Kazushige Nojima  
Tetsuya Nomura  
Nobuo Uematsu  
David Bowie  
U2  
Bruce Springsteen  
Nobuhiro Watsuki  
Yuzo Takada  
Terry Pratchett  
Taku Iwasaki  
Peter Gabriel  
Robert Smith  
Jeffrey Deaver  
The peoples of China, Japan and the United States of America, for their cultures and histories, which were a major source of inspiration for this story.  
And of course, the people of New York City, my own personal Zanarkand.  
  



	2. Prologue Mothers Of The Disappeared

The end?  
  
No, it shouldn't have ended that way.  
And it didn't.  
It began...  
  
  


______________________________________________

  
  
Now you close your eyes.  
And you picture yourself swimming through an unbounded ocean of stars.  
It takes you by surprise. You thought the void of space would be blackness with just a few twinkling lights in the distance. But there are so many stars as to be innumerable, their lights blazing, burning and reflecting of each other, magnifying their brilliant radiance, until the void of space is just a background, and the countless stars fill up the grand painting. You find it as beautiful a Moonflow spring, teeming with pyreflies.  
Now you look to your right.  
Past the burning brightness of the closest star, past the closest orbiting globes, to the smallest world in this solar system. Diminutive, compared to the other planets, yes, you notice that, but unique in another way too. It is a gleaming cerulean blue sphere, with streaks of white cloud and uneven blotches of drifting continents.  
Now you smile.  
Not just because this globe reminds you of your own world, but because as you start to swim forward, you're smiling with nostalgia and familiarity. You've been here before, to this beautiful world, so much like your own, but in so many other ways, so different. The name of this world is Spira.  
Now you choose.  
There are so many limitless worlds to choose from, and you've already seen this one. And even after seeing so many different ones, there are still so many more yet to see, you remind yourself. So you choose. You will continue the travels of your imagination, but for the moment, just for now, you wish to see Spira again.  
So you swim closer, and that small globe becomes so much bigger, soon encompassing your entire vision, dwarfing you. You drift down through the atmosphere, slipping through the blanket-like clouds, and then you see the entire geography of Spira, laid out before you like a great map, you can see all the rivers, forests, mountains and fields, but you can't quite see the towns and villages yet.  
  
_

Midnight, our sons and daughters  
Were cut down and taken from us  
Hear their heartbeat  
We hear their heartbeat...

_  
  
Something starts to draw you closer, a story calling for you to hear. Another one? You hear it call, and you fly, heading for the tallest mountain in Spira, Sacred Mount Gagazet. You fly on, not eager to wait, and you start to notice drops of water splash your face. It's starting to rain. The sky is opening up and showering all of Spira. There is not a single land that the rain is not falling upon.  
You do your best to ignore it, and continue to head towards the mountain. And there, you see someone, standing on Spira's highest peak. She looks... familiar.  
  


_In the wind  
We hear their laughter  
In the rain  
We see their tears_

  
  
Drifting closer, you recognise the figure. She is Summoner Yuna, from the island of Besaid. You know her from the last story you witnessed while you here. But the one who told you that story is gone...  
You can see a small group of people standing near Yuna, watching her. You recognise them too. They look up at Yuna, not saying a word as the rain falls both on them and herself.  
  
Yuna is crying.  
  


_Hear their heartbeat  
We hear their heartbeat..._

  
  
But, ...it's a strange emotion. She seems torn between absolute sadness and pure joy. The rain washes over her as it does all over Spira, slicking her light brown hair and soaking her clothes. She stands with arms streched out, looking down over her world, like the statue of Christ on the Corcavado Hill, only in her right hand she holds out her Summoner's staff. Thin lines of rain fall against her face, mixing with her heavy tears, and yet a smile of pure joy stays on her face throughout her weeping.  
  
_

Night hangs like a prisoner  
Stretched over black and blue  
Hear their heartbeat...  
We hear their heartbeat

_  
  
The others watch, but say nothing, just like the first time you ever saw them.  
Rikku, Yuna's own cousin, and a member of the Al Bhed tribe, the youngest of this small group. She holds out her palms, smiling in the rain, closing her eyes and letting a smile cross her face. No tears.  
Wakka, a Blitzball player from Besaid, once a devoted follower of the church of Yevon. He looks at Yuna, smiling, as if he always believed in her and his faith has been justified.  
Kimahri Ronso, standing head and shoulders above the rest. He was Yuna's first Guardian, protecting her ever since she was but a child. In one hand, he holds his spear, but he turns his head and looks away, out over the plains of Spira, seeing the rain fall. He closes his yellow eyes and softly nods, as if content with something...  
And one more.  
  
_

In the trees  
Our sons stand naked  
Through the walls  
Our daughters cry  
See their tears in the rainfall

_  
  
The Black Mage gazes up at Yuna, smiling serenly, as if proud to even just know Yuna. This is the first time you have ever seen such a look on her face. One of happiness, calm and blissful. She looks to her left, away from Yuna for the moment, and looks out over Spira. She steps closer to the mountain's edge, and watches the rain fall over her world. You follow her, watching the smile on her face.  
  
And you hear her voice.  
  
_I will tell you a story. You have probably already heard the story of Tidus, as it was he who told it to you himself. But there is another tale, if you wish to hear it, a tale for all of those who were captivated by Tidus' chronicle, by his epic adventure across our world of Spira. I journeyed with him in his saga, for I am Lulu of Besaid. So if you will listen to me, I will take you beyond Tidus' story. I will tell you the story that followed. The story of Yuna..._   
  
  


Final Fantasy X - Epsilon  
  
  
  
____________  
  
_"Everything dies, baby, that's a fact  
But maybe everything that dies someday comes back  
Put your make-up on, fix your hair up pretty  
And meet me tonight in Atlantic City"_  
- Bruce Springsteen  
  
_"Though lovers be lost, love shall not;  
And death shall have no dominion."_  
- Dylan Thomas  
  
_"My eyes have seen the glory!"_  
- Martin Luther King Jnr. _"If the people we love are stolen from us, the way to have them live on is to never stop loving them. Buildings burn, people die...  
but real love is forever."_  
- from "The Crow"  
  
_"Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"_  
- Martin Luther King Jnr.  
  
_"Everyone...everyone has lost something precious. Everyone has lost homes, dreams, and friends. Everybody... Now, Sin is finally dead. Now, Spira is ours again. Working together... Now we can make new homes for ourselves, and new dreams. Although I know the journey will be hard, we have lots of time. Together, we will rebuild Spira. The road is ahead of us, so let's start out today. Just, one more thing... The people and the friends that we have lost, or the dreams that have faded... Never forget them."_  
- High Summoner Yuna

  
  


_____________________________________

  
"Mothers Of The Disappeared" written by Bono, The Edge, Larry Mullen and Adam Clayton. Copyright belongs to U2 and Island Records. Taken from "The Joshua Tree" album.   



	3. Slow Burn

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**Final Fantasy X - Epsilon**  
Book I - "The Time Of The Turning"  
**by Daz Shier**  
  
In the big house  
Where the sun lives  
With the walls so white and blue  
In the red soil  
All the green grows  
And the winds blow across your face  
They blow across your heart  
  
It's the time of the turning  
And there's something stirring outside  
It's the time of the turning  
And we'd better learn to say out goodbyes  
  
All the earth breaks  
Like a stale bread  
And the seeds are folded in the soil  
Oh the sun pours  
Then the rains fall  
While the roots reach out right through the ground  
They reach out through the ground  
  
It's the time of the turning  
And there's something stirring outside  
It's the time of the turning  
And the old world's falling  
Nothing you can do can stop the next emerging  
Time of the turning and  
We'd better learn to say our goodbyes  
  
If we can stand up  
When all else falls down...  
We'll last through the winter  
We'll last through the storms  
We'll last through the north winds  
That bring down the ice and snow  
We'll last through the long nights  
Till the green field's growing again  
Growing again...  
  
- _Taken from Peter Gabriel's "Story of OVO"._  
________________________

  
  
_Let us begin, at the ending.  
And at the new beginning which followed.  
Yuna's story begins in the first week of the second month of the Eternal Calm. Sin was finally defeated forever, but not without price. Yuna had sacrificed all of her Aeons to defeat Yu Yevon. We were victorious. Sir Jecht was released from his decade of torment, and found his peace on the Farplane. And, having fulfilled a pledge to his friend, Sir Auron followed. His final words to us all as Yuna sent him were; "This is your world now."  
Without Yu Yevon to continue their eternal summoning, the Fayth faded from our world, and their dream ended. Our friend was part of that dream. I still remember how sad we all felt, especially Yuna, as we watched him say goodbye to us all, and soared from our airship into the magnificent sea of pyreflies.  
He faded away, like any dream does when the dreamer awakens. We never saw him again.  
Yuna sent the sea of pyreflies that had once been Sin to the Farplane. Evil was fading from the world. All whose souls had been held hostage by Sin were released and found their peace.  
Yevon lay in ruins. It still remained in our world, but its temples were empty. The faith of its followers, foundered. Yunalesca, Seymour, and Mika - They had all been sent. Our former religion still lingered in Spira, though hollow and lifeless, like an Unsent.  
As the sea of pyreflies faded, the airship turned around and headed back towards civilisation. None of us said a word. In fact, Yuna did not speak for three full days. That was when Maester Isaaru invited us to Bevelle so we could tell him that this time, Sin was truly gone forever. Isaaru announced to all of Bevelle, and it spread out into the world. Sin was defeated everlastingly, and that the Eternal Calm, a new dawn for Spira, had begun. Yuna and we, her Guardians, were pardoned, and even given a personal official apology. Yuna was declared a High Summoner, the only living person to ever have been given the title.  
Yuna chose not to stay in Bevelle.  
She wanted to return to Besaid. "For just... a little while, at least." The Al Bhed agreed to take us there. Cid was going to use the airship to look for a land where his people could build their city, New Home. Isaaru pardoned the Al Bhed, and declared all hostilities between Yevon and the Al Bhed over forever.  
The Al Bhed took us to Luca, and not Besaid as first planned. All the people of Spira wanted to hear Yuna speak on Sin's defeat, and the new future for Spira. It took organizing, and some time waiting for so many people to show up. Yuna made her address in Luca stadium, before a crowd measuring thousands. The Eternal Calm had truly begun.  
Kimahri was next to leave us.  
He was no longer needed as Yuna's Guardian in this peaceful world, and wanted to return to Gagazet, so he could labour in restoring his shattered tribe. Yuna promised she would come and visit him someday.  
Rikku chose to leave the Al Bhed tribe, for the moment. She wanted to stay with Yuna as much as I did, despite Besaid not being Rikku's home.  
When we returned to the village, Wakka found the Besaid Aurochs, and rejoined the team, filling the empty place his friend had left. He returned to his duties as Coach and Captain, and was astonished when the team were invited to use Luca stadium as their training ground for the next season. It was an offer he couldn't refuse, and that was how he left us. He promised he would return when the season ended, however.  
Yuna and I stayed in the hut that Wakka and I had once shared. She no longer wanted to live in the temple as she had before her pilgrimage. I was welcome to have her, and we were more like sisters than ever before. It is at this point, several weeks after the defeat of Sin, the second month of the Eternal Calm, and the twilight days of Spira's summer, that Yuna's second story begins.  
The story of the drought which swathed our world, both of rain and faith, of Yuna's second pilgrimage, the tragic and heroic events that followed, and the war that they sparked - The war for the Restoration of Spira.  
  
Listen..._  
  


**Chapter I - "Slow Burn"**

  
  
Yuna opened her eyes.  
She slowly sat forward, gripping the thin sheets with her hand and pinning them to her chest. The hut was empty, but Yuna still felt the need to preserve her modesty. Old habits died hard, after all, and Yuna had this thing about decency.  
She sighed and pressed her free hand to her forehead, stroking for a few seconds before wiping the sleep from her eyes. That had been the fifth night in a row that she had had to sleep in just her bare undergarments. Spira's heat wave continued unabated, and the nights were no colder than the days.  
When she thought about it, she remembered she had not seen rainfall in... well, since before her pilgrimage began. Well, there had been some on the Thunder Plains, but that was a permanent storm, and a long way from Besaid.  
Yuna and Lulu's beds were separated by a small round table towards the back of the hut. They were small, low, but comfortable, traditional wicker beds. There was a mirror resting on a small wooden locker next to Yuna's. Yuna reached out and turned it towards her, and stared at her heterochromic eyes looking back at her. She winked one, then the other. It was an idiosyncrasy she had picked up when she was a child. When she was younger, she would look in the mirror and alternate closed eyes. She could pretend the other eye was blue, or the other eye was green. She had no desire to change herself at all, though. Heterochromia ran in her family, and Rikku was always telling her how cool they looked.  
Yuna smiled as she put her earrings back onto her left ear, leaving the long, large beaded one for last. She had never been the type to use words like "cool". Though it was certainly a temperature she could go for right now, she reflected as she brushed her mousy-brown hair (Bed hair! Again! This never seemed to happen to Lulu...) and looked around.  
The hut was empty, but there was some breakfast waiting for her on the circular table next to the. bed There was a note lying next to it.  
Yuna got up and pulled on her long, purple skirt, followed by her white kimono, which she tied up. She left the faded pink and white clamp and yellow silk obi for today, feeling a little too hot for them. She walked over to the small table by the stove and kneeled down. Lulu had indeed made breakfast for her, and this morning, it was sushi.  
She picked up the note and read the kanji. Like everyone else, Lulu spoke Zanark, the common language of Spira, known by all except most of the Al Bhed. However, being able to speak a language and being able to read and write it are different things, so like almost everyone else in the village, Lulu read and wrote in Kilikan, the native language of Spira's provincial islands. Yuna had lived in Besaid since she was five years old, and could easily read and write it.  
"Nokorimasu ni mitsukema Rikku. Shima choshuku." she read to herself. "O-daiji ni, - Lulu."  
So, Lulu had gone off to find Rikku after leaving breakfast for Yuna. Yuna put down the note and smiled to herself, happy that Rikku had wanted to stay with them. Having her cousin and surrogate sister with her was comforting. Besaid just wouldn't be Besaid if she had gone to stay here all by herself. It just wouldn't be the same without the sense of family she associated with this village.  
She picked up a pair of chopsticks and began to help herself, picking a piece of fish from her platter. She idly wondered what time it was, and how long Lulu had been gone. Yuna had developed a bad habit of sleeping in, these days. If today was the same as yesterday, and the days before that, then it had to be around noon.  
The green tea Lulu had left for her was still warm, so she could not have been gone that long. Yuna finished her meal and cleaned up. Both Lulu and herself were very neat people, so the small hut was rarely in any state of untidiness.  
Yuna paused and looked around at the belongings on the shelves. Blitzball trophies, won by both Wakka and Chappu. Mystical ornaments, bought by Lulu. Mementos of previous pilgrimages Wakka and Lulu had brought back with them. Movie spheres of memories and important events. Yuna knew Wakka liked to keep a few of his favourite games on sphere. There were also music spheres. Just soothing ambient tunes now, because Yuna and Lulu both preferred peaceful ambient music for when they did their daily meditation. Wakka had preferred a more bouncy, upbeat kind of tune, and had taken those spheres with him. Rikku, on the other hand, well, Yuna didn't even know what the music was called that she liked. She didn't even know it could be called "music". She mostly listened to restored spheres that had been popular in Zanarkand a thousand years ago. The sound was always all heavy and loud, and the long-dead singers tended to shout their songs rather than sing them...  
Yuna also noticed that there were some pictures on the shelves too. One of her favourites was of herself, Lulu, Wakka and Chappu. And there was one of just Lulu, back when she was still in her pre-teens. She hadn't worn black much back then, and wore her hair loose, but still masking her left eye. There was one of Wakka and Chappu, holding their first Blitzball trophy. "The Blitz Brothers" was the title of the picture, which was they had liked to call themselves. There was a picture of young Yuna sitting on Kimahri's massive shoulders, and one Lulu kept that was just Chappu.  
And there, Yuna felt the sudden quick stab of regret - that she had not taken a picture of the one she had fallen in love with, as Lulu had. She just never had the time, and she had only met him at the start of her pilgrimage. A pilgrimage she had never believed she would come back from alive. What good would a picture have done her? And even when he had promised that she would live on after he found a way to defeat Sin, she could never have even believed that he would be the one to go. To ...just... fade... away...  
No. Stop thinking that. Yuna squeezed her eyes shut and smothered the pain. Not now, and not today. Today could be too nice, so no sense in ruining it. Besides, she was _supposed_ to enjoy life now. Right?  
Yuna stopped thinking and just stepped over to the doorway and stepped into her boots. She took a deep breath and stepped forward, through the drapes and out into the blazing morning sun. A perfect vanilla sky draped the heavens, and the white light and white heat of the sun was spread over anything below it.  
"Good morning, High Summoner Yuna." greeted an elderly person as he walked past, about his business. Yuna bowed softly in greeting. 'High Summoner'. It was a title she was still trying to get used to, but truth be told, she still preferred 'Lady Yuna'. Also, High Summoners were supposed to get a statue in every temple, weren't they?  
Yuna looked to her right, where the temple rested atop the small hill. Barely anyone was going in or out. It was likely that despite Yevon's pardon, the faltering religion had enough problems of it's own, and her statue was not top of the list. Maester Isaaru had a lot on his plate these days. The Ronso had promised a statue, but like Isaaru, Kimahri was also probably very busy trying to help the remaining Ronso rebuild their clan.  
Well, she did not mind in the least. There was very little in Yuna's personality that could pass for vanity. Some people just want a name for themselves, some want a crown, some want a statue, but some, like Yuna, just want their own little slice of happiness.  
Yuna looked over at the empty space between the huts opposite from hers. Where a hut had once been was just a cluster of palm trees, but now there was a hammock tied between two of them, and some chests, and a few odd-looking but assured harmless machina. This was where Rikku lived.  
"Good morning, Lady Yuna!" called one of the village children.  
"Good morning." Yuna replied, smiling. "Tell me, do you know where Rikku is?"  
  


* * * *

  
  
Rikku was, at that precise moment, dangling at least forty feet above the lapping waves of the sea below her. She was holding on to an outcrop of rock on the steep mountain face with one hand. She let her body turn in the wind, feeling the sea breeze over her face and through her hair. She had been climbing for about twenty minutes, without safety gear. She never needed any. It was just one of many skills she had picked up in her days as a treasure-hunter.  
She had been swimming in the coral reef around the east side of the island, when the sonar machina on her left hand had begun to emit noise, indicating treasure in the area. When she had surfaced, she discovered that the treasure was, in fact, all the way up the side of a steep mountain She recognised it. On one side was a steep but passable road to the summit, but on this side was a sheer drop.   
Never one to be daunted, Rikku had begun to climb. She reached this point, and the treasure was just a few feet to her left, and she was almost at the peak. She had gotten a firm grip on both hands, and a secure foothold under each foot. She then moved herself a little, and rock her left hand was on fell away. Rikku lost her footing, and almost fell, except for the grip in her right hand remained secure.   
She didn't even panic however, and was grinning from ear to ear, enjoying the moment. A sensation in her right shoulder, though, was telling her that she couldn't stop to appreciate the view. She reached down to her pouch with her left hand and adjusted the volume on the music sphere there until the music began to pound in her ears so loud that even the seagulls could probably hear it.   
She reached up and held onto the rock with both hands and reached her right leg out to a foothold. She reached out her right hand and began to make her way sideways towards the shining red sphere stuck in the small crack in the rock. She pulled the small orb from where it was trapped clear and pocketed it in the little pouch she wore on her right thigh.   
Satisfied, she reached up and tried to find another handhold, but only finding bare rock. She frowned and wondered what next move to make. She drew back her first and punched her Claw into the rock above her, jamming it in. That formed an artificial handhold. She grinned, pleased with herself and pulled herself up and over the side of the cliff, rolling onto the wind-blown grass and sighing, contented with herself.  
She suddenly became aware of someone next to her, blotting out the sun.  
She looked to her left. No feet, but a big, wide, long leather sarong, the front of which was an array of belts. Looking up, further past that, past the gap left between the some of the belts, which showed a glimpse of stocking, up to the fur-lined corset and the face that was staring at her with the permanent cold expression. No doubt about who it was. There was only one person on the whole island who always wore black all over.  
"Uhhh, hey Lulu." Rikku greeted. "Whatcha doing here?"  
"I was waiting for you." Lulu replied.  
"Gee, thanks." said Rikku. "Um, why?"  
"You've developed a habit of doing this lately, haven't you?" said Lulu. "Turning over every nook and cranny on the island. Now mountaineering, too?"  
Rikku stood up, blushing. "Hey, I can't help it and all. I need the adventure. Back when I lived in the desert, there was always so much to do, places to explore, fiends to fight and treasure to hunt. But, wellllll, no offence, but Besaid is _tiny_! I'm talkin' micro-scope-ick."  
"That's how some of us prefer it." Lulu stated, crossing her arms and looking out over the sea. The cool sea breeze blew her braided hair back behind her. "Nobody's forcing you to stay."  
"Hey, I want to stay." said Rikku, shrugging. "Yunie needs me, you know?"  
"Exactly." agreed Lulu. "She needs the people she cares about to be there for her. How do you think it would affect her if you had fallen off that cliff? She's still coming to terms with losing one loved one, she doesn't need a double tragedy."  
"Hey, I was never in any danger." Rikku explained. "I used to do stuff like this all the time back on Bikanel Island. Besaid may be tiny, but I like to explore, you know? And there's not nearly as much fiends around anymore. More's the pity, there's none to Mug. So, I go exploring for cool stuff around the island. Everyone needs a hobby."  
"And how goes the robbing and plundering trade?" Lulu asked, with an almost-grin.  
"I _prefer_ the term treasure hunting!"  
"And what 'treasure' did you find?"  
Rikku fished into her pouch and held up a small red marble. Lulu sighed. "All that effort for a sphere?" she asked, raising her hand to her forehead and shaking her head.  
"Hey, it's not just any sphere!" said Rikku, excitedly. "It's a Fortune Sphere! Alright, I was hoping it woulda been something much bigger and cooler like a music sphere, or maybe even a Jecht Sphere! You know, maybe one we missed? That woulda been cool, but these ain't so bad. I mean, they're supposed to bring you good fortune. You know, give you good luck."  
"That's just a superstition." said Lulu.  
"Said the Black Mage." giggled Rikku.  
Lulu frowned. "I'm going back to the village to spend time with Yuna. Are you coming?"  
"Sure!" said Rikku. "I'll give the sphere to Yunie. As a present."  
Lulu said nothing. She turned around and walked back down the steep hill to the village, leaving Rikku standing there, facing the sea and feeling pleased with herself.  
"Yeah, Treasure Hunter Rikku at your service!" she said to herself, not hearing Lulu leave. She was almost dancing, the way she was moving around. "Hey, you're that thief Rikku, ain't ya?" she said, putting on a masculine voice before reverting to her own and raising her Claw against the imaginary insulter. "Hey! Call me treasure hunter, or I'll rip your lungs out!"  
She stood still and laughed. "Think that would be cool, eh, Lulu?" she asked her hero. Rikku turned around. Lulu was gone, walking away down the road. "Hey! Wait fer me!"  
  


* * * *

  
  
Yuna found herself staring at the temple before her. It would be so easy to just go in and pray again. Just lose yourself in prayer, shut out the rest of the world and seal herself away from human contact for ages. Sometimes, she wished she was as strong as Lulu, strong enough to not feel the pain and loneliness of lost love - or at least strong enough to live with it.  
"Yunie!" came Rikku's voice. Yuna turned and looked back towards the village entrance, a trademark smile already overriding her previous sad expression.  
"Rikku..." she said as she saw her young Al Bhed cousin and Lulu walking up to her. "Good morning." she said.  
"Yeah, it is." said Rikku. "_Every single one_, seems to be. Don't you people ever get rain, here? I mean, it even rains in the desert, you know.  
"...Yes." replied Yuna, peering up at the sky. "It's... odd. It hasn't rained in a long time now."  
"Summer is ending." stated Lulu. "And yet, the heat remains constant."  
"Well, it better rain soon." muttered Rikku, scratching her cheek. "Otherwise this place will start to look more like Bikanel Island every day."  
Yuna nodded, not really interested in the conversation. It was obvious Rikku was walking on eggshells. Everybody seemed to deliberately avoid the issue with her. They never even said his name around her, not once.  
"Hey!" Rikku perked up. "Maybe Lulu can make it rain!"  
Yuna and Lulu looked at each other. Lulu crossed her arms and shook her head. "That's not my job, Rikku." she sighed. "When I cast Water spells, it's just false water. It doesn't last. Rain would be more of a Summoner's job."  
"Huh?" said Rikku. "I thought Summoners only called Aeons and performed Sendings and went on pilgrimages and stuff?"  
"A Summoner does more than that, Rikku." Yuna explained. "...We're Shamans. We also heal the sick, practice White Magic, perform exorcisms, deliver babies, and yes, sometimes we perform tribal dances, like the Prayers for Rain."  
"Excellent!" Rikku called. "Let's go do that!"  
Lulu stared at Rikku as Yuna gasped. "Rikku!" she hissed.  
"...Perform the Prayers for Rain?" Yuna asked, a touch of despair rising in her voice. Rikku quickly began to sense that she had poked a raw nerve. "Uhhhh... yes?" she hazarded.  
"The Prayers can only be performed on Spira's highest point - Gagazet's peak." Lulu explained, more than slightly annoyed. "That would require _another_ pilgrimage."  
Rikku stood silent for a moment. She looked at Lulu, then at Yuna, trapped in their stares. Then she grinned. "Well, that's great, Yunie! Just what you need!" she laughed, clamping her hands down on Yuna's shoulders. Yuna gasped, mystified. "Just what I _need_?" she echoed in disbelief.  
"Yeah, totally!" exclaimed Rikku. "Another pilgrimage, a chance to get out on the road again, and to stop moping around the island, you know? A chance to forget about sadness for a while!"  
Yuna broke away from Rikku. "..._No_!" she cried. "I don't want to! "Don't want to... to go through that again. Go through it without him... NO!"  
"Yuna!" Lulu called.  
"Yunie!"  
But Yuna was already gone, walking briskly out of the village and up the hill. Rikku made to follow, but Lulu blocked her with her outstretched hand. Rikku looked up at her, but Lulu just shook her head. "Let her be alone, for a while." Lulu advised.  
Rikku sighed. "I thought she'd welcome the idea. Really, I did."  
"Don't ever forget where the road paved with good intentions leads. She still needs time." was all Lulu said.  
Rikku looked up at her. "You've been there before, haven't you?" she asked. "Wakka told me about you and his bro."  
"Chappu." said Lulu, closing her eyes.  
"Well how much longer?" Rikku wondered. "When does the pain get any less?"  
"It doesn't." assured Lulu, opening her eyes again and watching Yuna off in the distance. "For the rest of your life, the pain never gets any less. You just get stronger."  
Rikku hung her head. "Oh, man. Guess I acted like a moron just there, huh?"  
"No." said Lulu, glancing at her. "You acted... _just like him_."  
Rikku suddenly went wide-eyed, and realised Lulu was right. She'd been acting exactly like a certain Mister Star Player Of The Zanarkand Abes and she hadn't even noticed it. But Yuna had. In her eyes, it had been him standing right before her, urging her to go on a second pilgrimage. But that just served to remind her he wasn't there, and he never would be again.  
Rikku slapped her hand up to her forehead. "I gotta go tell her I'm sorry."  
"Yes." said Lulu. "But later. Wait until she's had some time to herself, first."  
"Great. What are we supposed to do til then?"  
Lulu went silent for a moment, then thought of something. "Have you been practising your Black Magic skills yet?"  
Rikku groaned.  
  


* * * *

  
  
Up here, the sea breeze was stronger, and somewhat cooling. Yuna found herself walking past the shrine and along Waterfall Way by herself, with the wind coming in from the ocean on her right. She was hugging herself, more so for comfort than against the elements.  
Then she discovered it reminded her of someone else's arms around her. Arms that slowly became less and less tangible, until she could see through them.  
She fought back the urge to cry. She hadn't cried in months, not since she had been in the Spring with him. She didn't want to cry, in case that somehow getting overcome by the sadness would only amplify the pain, rather than let it out. After all, Lulu had never cried when Chappu was killed...  
  
_

I grieve  
For you  
You leave me  
So hard to move on  
Still loving what's gone  
They say life carries on

_  
  
"But I'm not Lulu!" she said to the wind. It's only reply was a quickening of the breeze against her, like nature itself was trying to dry the tears ringing her eyes. "...Why?" she asked herself. "Of everyone who I had to lose... why was it you? Anyone else... Lulu, Rikku, anyone... I could have dealt with this pain _with_ you..."  
  
_

The news that truly shocks   
Is the empty, empty page  
While the final rattle rocks   
Its empty, empty cage  
  
And I can't handle this  
I grieve   
  
For you  
And you leave me  


_   
"I wish I could hate you." she admitted, sitting down on a rock and looking up into the sky. "Hate you like you hated Sir Jecht, for leaving me. You knew you were going to leave us, and you never told us. You... never told _me_ And that's why I can't hate you, ...because I knew you loved me and you couldn't hurt me by telling me..."  
  


_Let it out and move on  
Missing what's gone  
They say life carries on  
They say life carries on and on and on_

  
  
She wiped her eyes and gritted her teeth. "...And I can't hate you because I love you so much!" Her only reply came from the empty wind blowing over her, and the sound of gulls overhead and over the sea. And the gentle lapping of the waves. Life continuing, oblivious.  
  
_

Life carries on  
In the people I meet  
In everyone that's out on the street  
In all the dogs and cats  
In the flies and rats  
In the rot and the rust  
In the ashes and the dust  
Life carries on and on and on and on  
Life carries on and on and on

_  
  
Not even a sphere... they had never thought to make one of their journey, like Sir Jecht had done. A sphere... that would have been nice. A way to save the memories they had shared together...  
"But I already have that..." she realised, and touched her heart. "If there's anything you've taught me, it's that I should live my life... and you don't want me... to sit here and cry..."  
  
_

Did I dream this belief?  
Or did I believe this dream?  
Now I will find relief  
I grieve

_  
  
"There's somewhere I need to go, first..." she said, standing up and starting to walk down the idyllic path of Waterfall Way, past the many water cascades and towards the path down to the beach.  
  


* * * *

  
  
Rikku stared at the plant had Lulu placed on the table before her.  
"So," Lulu began, crossing her arms. "What can you tell me about this plant?"  
Rikku blinked and stared at the plant again, like this was a trick question. She looked at it this way and that, her spiralled green Al Bhed eyes telling her slightly more information about the plant than other human races saw. Al Bhed eyes could see magnetic fields, a gift evolution had granted the only species to work closely with machinery for a millenium.  
"Thaaaat it could use a little watering?" she hazarded, looking up at Lulu's cycloptic stare. Not even a shaking of the head. Eeep. "I dunno!" Rikku whined. "This isn't exactly my forte, you know? Why didn't you let me try with some useless machina or something?"  
"Because machina are vulnerable to Thunder magic." explained Lulu. "Are you sure that's what you want to start off on?" Rikku quickly shook her hands and her head. "No! No! No! No-No! Fire will be good, thanks! ...Oh! I just got it! It's a plant, it's weak to Fire! ...Now what?"  
Now you convince the plant's elemental structure to become hot, and quickly, hotter than it's ever been..." described Lulu. "You project your inner emotions, the ones you associate with heat, like anger or fury into the plant itself..."  
"Great!" exclaimed Rikku, and stared at the plant again. After a few seconds, a green petal weakly broke off and fluttered to the ground. Rikku was pretty sure it wasn't her doing. "Umm, how do I do that, exactly...?"  
Lulu shook her head. "I'm sorry..." she said. "Not everyone can use Black Magic. Just a limited few."  
"Okay then, moving swiftly on..." said Rikku. "Where do I get an outfit like that?"  
Lulu almost laughed. "You're not serious?"  
"I am!" Rikku stood up, serious but still playful. "A lot of other Al Bhed girls have started making themselves look more like hyuman women these days... like dying their hair brown or black, or wearing dark colours. They've even thought about inventing little lenses you can wear right in your eyeballs that change their colour. Doesn't that sound cool?"  
"...What's wrong with who you are?" Lulu asked.  
"Oh, absolutely nothing." said Rikku. "I'm still proud to be an Al Bhed, it's just different, that's all. Well... there is _one_ thing..."  
"Yes?"  
"I know Yevon pardoned us and all, and we're free to go where we want as we please, just like other hyuman people and races, but... some of the old prejudices are still around, I've heard. My old man told me that the Al Bhed still aren't welcome in places like Bevelle, _despite_ what Isaaru says..."  
"It takes a while for people to change, Rikku." said Lulu. "Even longer for a whole world to, but the world _is_ changing. As far as history is concerned, this is a very exiting time to be alive. We should enjoy it."  
Rikku looked sad for a moment, then turned to face the shelves behind her, and all the collected memories resting there. "Try telling that to Yunie..."  
"She's..." Lulu began, then halted herself "...still grieving."  
"Aren't we all?" Rikku asked. "I hope Yunie will be fine..."  
"She will be." said Lulu, stating a simple fact. "...As fine as I am."  
"Hey, where are you going?" Rikku asked. Lulu was making for the doorway, slowly.  
"I should probably go talk to her." Lulu explained. "Be good."  
Rikku merely waved, and began to look at Wakka's pictures. She saw a picture of a younger Lulu, in the arms of a man. _Chappu..._ Lulu and Wakka were right, there was a resemblance.  
  


* * * *

  
  
Lulu found her, down by the pier, sitting on the end with her boots off, dangling her feet over the water. As Lulu approached, Yuna placed her fingers to her lips and blew a loud whistle, the only reply to which came from the gulls overhead.  
"Why do you do that?" Lulu asked, squatting down beside her.  
"Oh..." breathed Yuna, just noticing her. "It's... just something we had. He said that would be our signal to each other, if we ever needed each other... you know?"  
At first Lulu seemed not to reply. Yuna looked up at her. She was staring ahead, out over the sea, with a strange expression on her face. Nostalgia...  
"Yes, I know." she said, eventually.  
  
_Chappu and I... We were a lot like Yuna and her love, though I never told her that. He didn't just look like Chappu, he acted like him too. Chappu would always be very energetic, trying to make me as enthusiastic as him. To his dying day, I think the only thing he failed to get me interested in was Blitzball. So alike... I knew Yuna was going through what I did, and I remember hoping that she wouldn't become like me..._  
  
Lulu glanced back down at Yuna, her thoughts broken when she saw Yuna wiping her eyes. She wasn't crying, not yet. Lulu recognised it, the few cracks in the dam of emotion, not far from giving way to the flood. "Are you alright?" she asked, knowing she wasn't.  
"You know what it's like, then..." said Yuna. She looked up at Lulu, opposing eyes ringed with tears. "You know how bad it hurts."  
Lulu put an arm around her, which made Yuna lean into her. "Yes." said Lulu. "I know."  
"When will it stop hurting?" Yuna pleaded. Lulu sighed.  
"Never." said Lulu, emotional and breaking character. "It never will. The pain never gets any less, you'll just get stronger."  
"...I heard you didn't cry when Chappu died."  
"That's..." Lulu started. "That's true..."  
  
_...It wasn't._  
  
"Everything I have of Chappu, I keep with me." Lulu explained. "I keep him alive in my heart, and in my head. I realised that if I did that, kept him in my memory, then Sin would never be able to touch him again."  
"Sin's gone forever..." said Yuna, tears drying up. "But the cost we paid, I'm starting to wonder if it was too much. ...And then I remember that the needs of the many... they're more important than the needs of the few..."  
Lulu sighed. "The price of love." she said. "I know it's not cheap."  
There was silence for a few moments. Just the gentle lapping of the waves against the old wood of the pier. The ferry was gone for the day, but it would be back tomorrow, in time to take anyone who wanted to go to Kilika. Or anyone who wanted to go on another pilgrimage.  
"Rikku is sorry." said Lulu. "She's just thinking about you, and she hates not being able to help you. She hasn't lost someone like we have, you see. That idea of a second pilgrimage, she meant well. She thinks another journey would do you good."  
"The Prayers For Rain..." Yuna sighed. "I... wouldn't have to visit the temples..."  
"Just Gagazet." said Lulu. Yuna had told her all about a Summoner's various duties that most outsiders didn't know. Yuna would have to travel on foot from her home and scale Gagazet, up to it's tallest peak, and pray for rain from there. If satisfied that the world's need for rain was that important, then apparently God would approve and send the waters to the world below.  
"Do you think I should?" Yuna asked, earnestly.  
"I don't know." Lulu replied. "I can't see the harm. ...Maybe it would be for the best, if we went out and saw how Spira was doing."  
"It... _would_ be nice to see Wakka and Kimahri again..." said Yuna, not necessarily agreeing to do it, just stating a fact.   
"Are you thinking of doing it?" asked Lulu.  
"I'll think about it..." said Yuna. "I just want to stay here, for a little while longer..."  
So they did.  
  


* * * *

  
  
As they walked along Waterfall Way, back to the village, they passed a familiar red-haired man, coming in the opposite direction. He was shorter then most men, but made up for it with his proud personality. His hair was like Wakka's, only tighter and more mauve than red.  
"Sir Luzzu." greeted Yuna, bowing.  
"High Summoner." Luzzu replied, bowing in return, then nodded at Lulu, who nodded back. For a moment, Yuna noticed she was going to have to live with being called a High Summoner for the rest of her life, even though she had no Aeons to speak of at all. For a second, she thought glumly about her decision to kill them all one by one...  
"This heat is unnatural." said Luzzu, making conversation. "There's a drought on the wind, I fear."  
"Not just of water, either..." Lulu added. Fewer and fewer people were stopping by the temple anymore, and both she and Yuna suspected this was true for all over Spira. A deprivation of rain, and a famine of faith. People's faith in the Yevon orthodoxy was fading. The temples were emptying, and the shrines were no longer being prayed to.  
"I know." said Luzzu. "I noticed that people don't even pray at the shrine before they leave on a journey anymore."  
"Another price we've paid..." Yuna murmured. "We've been freed from subjugation, only to have or faith thrown out with it."  
"But I see some still believe, right, Lady Yuna?" asked Luzzu.  
Yuna looked startled. Then nodded, slowly. "It's true, that I no longer have faith in the church of Yevon, or most of it's teachings... But my faith in what lies Higher has never been shaken. I have never doubted..."  
"We should all be grateful, if we had even half your strength." Luzzu sighed. And there it was, lying open for them to see. Luzzu was a broken man, with no more faith in himself than he had in Yevon. He had led young men into battles, and outlived them. And he had to see their widows, parents, brothers, sisters and loves when he returned without them. He had lost all confidence, in himself as a person and himself as a Crusader. Now he seemed awkward around Yuna and Lulu, or anyone for that matter. It was hanging in the air, over the conversation, words deliberately not being said.  
_You both had loves I went into battle against Sin with - and I outlived them both._  
"The ferry will be in port tomorrow." said Luzzu, changing the subject. "I'm leaving the village. There's no work for a Crusader in this town anymore, with Sin gone and the fiends all dying from the drought. But we haven't disbanded, at least, not yet, anyway. There's going to be a meeting in Luca to decide what to do. All surviving Crusaders are going to go. We're either going to reform as a law enforcement organization, or just disband completely. We'll decide in a few days."  
Yuna bowed. "I am sure that whatever is decided, will be for the best. For Spira, and for you, Sir Luzzu."  
"Thank you." said Luzzu, then said goodbye and walked away. Yuna and Lulu watched him go. "It's sad..." said Yuna.  
"A drought of faith." said Lulu. "Both in our religion, and in ourselves."  
"He said that the ferry will be in port in the morning..." Yuna reflected.  
"Are you still thinking of going?" Lulu asked.  
"I was thinking... maybe if the drought breaks, people's faith may return." "If the drought breaks." Lulu pointed out. "And even then, it's only a maybe." Yuna sighed, and looked to the cloudless sky. "I can't help …but wonder, how many more are like him? …How many of the people who have helped me to get this far and defeat Sin are also suffering this crisis? They don't deserve …to feel like this. This Eternal Calm, it was supposed to be a prosperous time, …a season of peace. But instead, it's a time of quiet desolation…"  
"You're right." agreed Lulu. "We're not in bloom at all. We're all slowly burning under the searing sky, and nobody has the faith to even hope for an end."  
"Then I must go." stated Yuna. "I must do what I can to end this drought."  
Lulu looked at here. "I would hope you're not planning on going off alone."  
Yuna smiled. "I would hope you're not planning on letting me."  
"Come on. Let's go find Rikku."  
  


* * * *

  
  
Rikku looked up when Lulu pushed open the flap guarding the entrance of Lulu and Yuna's hut. She got to her feet when she saw Yuna walk in behind her.  
"Yunie…" she began. "Yunie, I… I'm sorry. I didn't know." She held out the Fortune Sphere she had found on the cliffs in her hand, offering it to her. "…Forgive me?"  
Yuna smiled. "It's alright, Rikku. I know you didn't mean it."  
"Yeah, but still…" sighed Rikku. "Feel like the world's biggest idiot for pushing you like that, you know?"  
"It's okay, really." said Yuna. "Actually, I've been thinking about what you said. …A lot. I think you may have been on to something…"  
"I was…" mused Rikku. Then blinked. "I mean… I was?"  
Yuna nodded. "The people need rain, regardless of how I feel. And besides, it would be nice to… see everyone again…"  
"So you're going to do it?" asked Rikku.  
"It's not such a long journey, when you think about it." Lulu pointed out. "We won't have to visit the temples, and there's no risk of attack by Sin on our way. And the fiends are low in numbers, so we won't have to worry about _them_, either."  
Rikku grinned. "Alright!" she yelled. "Let's goooooo–"  
"Tomorrow." Lulu quickly interceded.  
"–ooo tomorrow, as soon as Yunie's all ready, is what I was going to say." the Al Bhed finished, then smiled. Yuna laughed, and Lulu shook her head. It was just like old times already.  
  
_We slept easy that night. It was the first time in a long while that I didn't hear Yuna having any sad dreams. Rikku slept soundly in her hammock, tied between two trees on the other side of the village, amidst a pile of machina she always insisted were useful. They used to marvel the local villagers, but no longer. The night passed without event, and the morning broke with yet another cloudless day. We packed what belongings we were going to bring, but because of the heat, chose to travel light. We bid our fellow villagers a farewell, and left for the ferry shortly before it's departure. At that time, we had no idea how great an adventure we were embarking upon. As I look back on it now, I'm reminded of a story I heard when I was a child. A character in the story said that it was always best to be careful when you step outside your door, as you never know where you might end up. That was especially true for us. We had no way of knowing that at that very same time, dark forces were already drawing against us, and evil was preparing to flood back into the world…_  
  
"I know that…" said Rikku. "I'm just saying, that if there's time, it would be cool to check in on my Dad along the way and see how he's doing, is all."  
"_If_ there's time." Lulu conceded, then stopped. They had walked up the hill leading from the village, and turned left toward Waterfall Way and the road down to the beach. But Lulu had just noticed that Yuna was missing, having fallen behind. Rikku and Lulu stopped and looked back. Yuna was kneeling in front of the shrine, praying.  
"Hey…" said Rikku. "Why's she's doing that? There's no Sin to worry about anymore, right? And I thought she didn't follow Yevon anymore…"  
Rikku felt Lulu's eye on her. She returned the gaze, and Lulu watched Yuna again. "She's praying for a safe journey, regardless of Sin. And she's not praying to _Yevon_…" "Oh." said Rikku, then got it. "…_Oh_." As Yuna finished her prayers, she got up and picked up her staff, that she had placed on the ground next to her. "You didn't really need to bring that." Lulu called over.   
"I know." Yuna called back. "But I like it… I've… grown used to it, even if I don't have any Aeons. I can still use it as a walking stick. It may not be a long journey, but it's still a lot of walking."  
"And if we don't start soon," said Lulu, turning and walking down the path toward the beach. "Then we'll miss the boat."  
"Yeah!" Rikku giggled, also turning and following Lulu. "Don't fall behind, Yunie!"  
Yuna smiled as she watched them go. A cooling wind blew over her, and she stood still for a moment, watching her cousin and the friend who was like a sister to her. She refused to take anyone for granted on this pilgrimage, and just stood there thinking for a few seconds, before she started walking down to the beach.   
Thinking about how much she loved them.  
  


_Once, I thought I knew  
Everything I needed to know about you  
Your sweet whisper  
Your tender touch  
But I didn't really know that much  
The joke's on me, but it's gonna be okay  
If I can just get through this lonesome day  
  
Hell's brewin', dark sun's on the rise  
This storm'll blow through, by and by  
House is on fire, viper's in the grass  
A little revenge and this too shall pass  
This too shall pass  
I'm gonna pray  
Right now, all I got's this lonesome day  
  
Better ask questions before you shoot  
Deceit and betrayal's bitter fruit  
It's hard to swallow, come time to pay  
That taste on your tongue  
Don't easily slip away  
  
Let Kingdom Come,  
I'm gonna find my way through this  
Lonesome day…_

  
  


* * * *

  
  
"Lonesome Day" written and performed by Bruce Springsteen and E Street Band. Copyright Bruce Springsteen.  
"I Grieve" written and performed by Peter Gabriel. Copyright Peter Gabriel and published by Real World Music Ltd.  
"The Time Of The Turning" written by Peter Gabriel and performed by Richie Havens. Taken from Peter Gabriel's "Story Of OVO".Copyright Peter Gabriel and published by Real World Music Ltd.  
  



	4. Yuna's Story Utikisama

  


**Chapter II; Yuna's Story - "Utikisama"**

  
_"Ojuugoya nu utiki,_ ("I pray to the 15th-night moon  
_Kafu sa negau_, That I might be happy  
_Ooki na hego nu kokage nu shita de,_ In the shade of a large palm tree 

_Kanasharu umuikage iti iti ma din,_ Memories in which my beloved's face  
_Natikashasa ukabu umuide yo,_ Always comes to me so longingly  
_Odayaka na kazi ni nusiti_, Set adrift on the gentle wind

_Tikiyu nu akagari ni miyuru kui nu hana,_ The flower of love that grows in moonlight  
_Shiyukazi ni tadayou shiranami tu shami nu ne,_ Wandering on a salt wind, the sound of   
foamy waves and the shamisen

_Kimubukaku nagari yuzura yo irodoru_, Flowing deeply into my heart   
_Ten nu buribushi nu kyu ra sa_, and painting the night sky,  
The beauty of the constellations

_Ojuugoya nu utiki,_ I pray to the 15th-night moon  
_Kafu sa negau,_ That I might be happy  
_Ooki na hego nu kokage nu shita de,_ In the shade of a large palm tree

_Kanasharu umuikage iti iti ma din,_ Memories in which my beloved's face  
_Natikashasa ukabu umuide yo,_ Always comes to me so longingly  
_Odayaka na kazi ni nusiti_, Set adrift on the gentle wind  
_Yo irodoru_ And the night sky

_Yo irodoru"_ And the night sky")

  


_"Yuna's story began long before she became a Summoner, and when her Pilgrimage was a decade away. It was there, under the sails of a ship, and a gentle breeze, where she told me the beginning of her story. She had never told it to me before, because I had never asked her to. But there was a lot on my mind, a lot to think about it. And I had my own reasons for finally wanting to hear it" _

What little breeze there was caught easily on the large sails of the S.S. Liki, blended with the power of the ship's steam-driven water-wheels and pushed the boat onwards across the calm sea. Travel by boat had become more popular after Sin's destruction. A riskless journey, save of course for any natural storms. Of which there still were none. Despite the boom in the seafaring trade, the Liki was still just small ship, with hardly any passengers at all.   
Lulu walked up the wooden steps and onto the deck, where her gaze found Rikku, leaning over the back of the ship and making dry-retching sounds.  
"You could have warned us you get sea-sick." stated Lulu, casually, placing a hand on the sickly Al Bhed girl's shoulder.  
"Hey, do I make fun of you when you're in the desert complaining about the heat?" Rikku countered weakly. "Oh well. Least my cheeks finally match my eyes, huh?" she chuckled, then groaned again.  
"This never seemed to happen on the airship" Lulu recalled.  
"Because the airship flies on the air." Rikku explained, sighing. "And air is _air_. It's nothing. But the sea, ooooh, the sea's going everywhere. It's going up, it's going down, going up again, going around, and just when you think it's gonna go up again, it goes down Much like my breakfast."  
Lulu patted her shoulder once more as she leaned over the side again. "Sure you'll be okay?"  
Rikku gave her a weak but confident thumbs-up, and Lulu began to walk away, hearing Rikku swearing in Al Bhed. "_Dah zitkac uv Ramm..._"  
Lulu had searched the lower deck for Yuna, but couldn't find her. After searching both the main and lower decks, she found her on the observation deck, leaning over the rope rails and enjoying the sea breeze in her face. Lulu stepped up beside her and stood there, also enjoying the breeze, but keeping her hair still tightly tied so it didn't blow away from her face.  
"The wind it's nice." she said.  
Yuna nodded, and chuckled quietly to herself. Lulu glanced at her but said nothing. Lulu knew a private joke when she heard one.   
"The last time I was here, I spent all my time at the bow of the ship" said Yuna, explaining without having Lulu ask. "I was so enthusiastic about my pilgrimage So I wanted to see where I was going. Then Sin came"  
Lulu nodded. Yuna continued. "The second night, I stayed at the back of the ship I wanted to think about what I was leaving behind."  
"And now?" Lulu asked.  
Yuna smiled. "Now I don't want to think about either anymore. I want to just be with the people I love."  
Lulu nodded and turned around, leaning against the ropes. "The last time I was up here, Wakka and I stayed up all night talking about all the people we knew. We talked about you, and about our parents"  
"Oh, that's right" Yuna remembered. "You and Wakka lost them long before I ever came to Besaid. You never talked about them before"  
"Wakka doesn't remember his." Lulu explained. "Chappu and I were born shortly before they were killed. So he had to be a father and a brother to Chappu. I can remember my mother, a little, and the things she taught me"  
Yuna's eyes lowered slowly, sadly. "I remember a few of the things my mother told me, too"  
"My mother she was very beautiful. And very sad. I never met my father, but I remember she told me about him. We never met. The sad truth is, he never even knew about me"  
"Have you ever tried to find him?" Yuna asked.  
Lulu looked away. "He died" she said. "A long time ago."  
"I'm sorry"  
Lulu looked back, and smiled. "It's okay." she said. "You can't miss what you never knew. How about you? Why not tell me your story? You know, when I think about it, you never really ever talked about when you lived in Bevelle in detail, and yet you seem to know so much"  
"Oh" said Yuna, evasively. "It's a long story, really, and not very interesting."  
Lulu smiled. "Indulge a friend." she asked. "I'm curious. Besides, it's a long trip, I'm not going anywhere."  
Yuna returned the smile, then sighed. "Over ten years ago" she began. "We lived in Bevelle. My father he was an apprentice Summoner. He would pray in the temples almost daily, despite the fact that he was an outcast for marrying an Al Bhed"  
"Why did Braska do that, anyway?" Lulu asked.  
Yuna allowed herself a nostalgic, sad smile. "Why does anyone do anything?" she said. "For love."  
"I'm sorry." Lulu apologised. "Continue."  
"Well, we lived in Bevelle. My father spent most of his time at the temple, but he still had time for my mother and I I remember one day, when I was five"

_Yuna skipped down the street, her short legs moving twice as fast as her mother's. Her mother, Sudran, would have held her hand or carried her, but her hands were full of groceries. She looked up at her mother, who looked back down at her and smiled.  
"Sushi and rice, again as usual." said her mother. For an Al Bhed, she spoke very good Zanark. It was Braska who had taught her, and her brother Cid, and they had both picked the language up very well. They had tried to pass it on to other Al Bhed, but they had rejected it, still deeply suspicious of the Yevonites. When she had gone to live in Bevelle with Cid, Sudran had promised she'd one day teach her child the Al Bhed language. In return, Cid would try to teach his own children Zanark.  
"Do the Al Bhed not eat much fish, mom?" Yuna asked.  
"Not much fish in the desert, payidevim." Sudran replied, using a kind Al Bhed word for Yuna. It was little droplets of the language like that that helped her to learn. "In the desert, we make our own food."  
"Meat?" Yuna asked. Her mother nodded. "Yevon says it's wrong to eat meat"  
Sudran looked down at her daughter. She stopped and put the groceries on the ground and kneeled down in front of her daughter, for a little explanation of life. "I know." she said. "So I respect your father's faith, even if I don't share it. And he respects my way of life in return. Before you were born, he even let me show him machina. There are many different ways of life in the world, Yuna. You may not always agree with or understand people who are different to you, but you should always respect that difference. Because in the end, they're complementary. Just as no life is more or less important than any other, the same holds true for any _way_ of life. Do you understand?"  
Yuna nodded. "Good." said Sudran. "Now, let's get home. We'll see if we can have dinner ready by the time your father gets back."  
Yuna smiled and kissed her mother, and together they walked through the streets back to the small house where they lived. It was a small, little out of the way place. Ordinarily, a Summoner or apprentice was allowed to live and sleep in the temple, but Al Bhed weren't allowed in, so they lived in a small little house, lost deep in the urban maze of the city.  
As they rounded the corner, Sudran and her daughter stopped. Yuna blinked, too young to understand what was before her. She couldn't read yet, but she was learning. But she couldn't read the kanji that someone had maliciously painted on the front of the house in big white strokes.  
"What does it mean, mom?" Yuna asked, looking away from the letters to her mother's face. Sudran was upset, but for her daughter's sake didn't show it. "It doesn't mean anything, sweeting." she said. "It doesn't mean anything."  
They went inside. When Braska came home, he spent the evening washing the kanji off. She didn't know then, but as she grew, Yuna learned what those words meant.  
They said "Al Bhed go home!"  
They said "Heathen Al Bhed scum!"  
They said "God hates filthy damn Al Bhed _Eishtars_!"_

"I know what it's like to be treated differently." said Lulu.  
"I was much too young then to understand it." explained Yuna. "But it hurt my mother I could tell."  
"We'll be arriving in Kilika soon." said Lulu, pointing towards the island looming towards them. "I wonder how they're doing, if they've rebuilt yet."  
"I'd never witnessed Sin's wrath first-hand, when I lived in Bevelle." said Yuna.  
"In a thousand years, Sin never attacked the city." said Lulu, cynically. "The only explanation from Yevon was that the city was the spiritual heart for the teachings of Yevon, and therefore the most pure. But that was just another lie. No doubt Yu Yevon or Yunalesca wouldn't allow the root if their church to be destroyed by their own creation."  
Yuna shook her head sadly. "Too many people believing in the church, instead of what it should stand for It corrupts everything in the end"

_Eishtar. It was a word that's origin had become lost in the passage of time. It came from a lost language, bastardised in the accepted tongues of Yevon as an insult to anyone of Al Bhed blood. It had originally been a word for "green", but became a derogatory based on the colour of the Al Bhed race's eyes. Now it was a horrible, repulsive slang, used by the kind of people who would spell "Negro" wrong and with an extra "g". It has hurtful, to reduce someone down to just their race, and not even to use their race's proper title, but to use an ugly and insulting word to do it too.   
Yuna had heard that word several times in her life. When they were walking down the road, the shout would just come from a voice who's speaker preferred the anonymity of the crowd. And it upset her mother, but she didn't show it.   
Sometimes, Sudran missed her tribe. Missed being among other Al Bhed. She was a very strong woman, one of the very few Al Bhed brave enough not to wear a mask or goggles in a futile attempt to disguise their race. She loved her husband, and loved her daughter. But she missed her own family. And she suffered almost daily, for being a heathen in the first city of Yevon.  
Yuna knew this, so it was no surprise to her when she came home one day to find her parents talking about Sudran going back to Home for visit. Sudran had received a letter from her brother, inviting her to return home, which she wanted to do.  
"I haven't seen Aniki since he was an infant." Sudran explained. "Cid says he's tried to teach his son Zanark, but he's having trouble learning. And what about Rikku? Three years old, she is. I have a niece who I've never even seen. And it's been so long since I've even seen my own brother, and Yuna's never met her cousins"  
Braska sighed, showing his wife his worry. "These are dangerous times for travel. Sin's prey is our hearts, and it's hunting grounds is in the moments of opportunity it waits for to take our loved ones from us. It's safer to wait for the next Calm."  
"And when will that happen?" Sudran asked. "Another few years? Another few decades? Not until Yuna's all grown up and she doesn't know what it's like to have a large family? And there's no guarantee that Sin won't just come and attack here anyway, or even Home."  
"I don't want Yuna to go, and I don't want you to go either. Sin or no Sin, it's still a dangerous journey, especially for a child"  
Sudran hugged him. "Please, Braska." she implored. "I have to see my family again. I have to be with the Al Bhed again, even if just for a little while. You're my husband and I love you, but you don't know what it's like for me, living in a city where all day you're a nothing, just another heathen Eishtar."  
Braska flinched at the word, then sighed. "I do know what it's like." he said. "Every day, I'm in that temple. And in that temple, no matter how hard I work or what I do, I'm never an apprentice Summoner, or a husband or a father. I'm just that man who married an Al Bhed."  
Sudran sighed wearily. Braska continued. "But I love my wife, and I love my daughter. They can call me what they want but they can't change how I feel about you."  
She smiled at him. "Okay." she said. "Yuna should stay here, I agree with you. And I know you have your duties here. I'll be alright. And I'll be back soon, I promise."  
Braska nodded, and hugged her again.  
That night, Yuna's mother came into her daughter's bedroom and said goodnight for the last time. She wished her sweet dreams and said she'd bring her back something nice from Home. They sat up a while, talking. Sudran told her all about Home, and the Al Bhed. She told Yuna about Sin, Rikku, and Cid. And that if she ever needed help, to seek Cid out. In her innocence, Yuna wondered why, believing as all children did that both her parents would be there for her forever.   
Her mother kissed her goodnight, and Yuna never saw her again.  
A week later, a man came to the door. He had been a member of the crew on the passenger ship that Sudran had been travelling on, and one of the few survivors. It had been a clear day, sailing to Kilika's port. They were on open, calm seas, and Sin had come in out of nowhere. The ship exploded into splinters under it's terrifying power, scattering debris, and people, everywhere. Sudran was one of the many who had died instantly, and felt no pain. What little survivors there were somehow made it to Kilika, and the Summoner in the temple was able to perform a Sending.  
All this was told to Braska, who in turn had to tell his daughter why her mother would never be coming home again._

When they landed in Kilika, it was an impressive sight. Rikku was the first of the trio off the boat, and stood on the pier in satisfaction.  
"Aaaahhhhhh!" she sighed, relieved. "Check it out! Ain't it awesome?"  
"It's certainly impressive." said Yuna, walking down the gangplank to the pier, with Lulu behind her.  
"It shows what you can do, if you put your mind to it." Lulu agreed. "The repairs are going at such a rapid pace, it wasn't nearly this rebuilt the last time we were here."  
Rikku turned and faced the rebuilt town of Kilika. She hadn't been there to witness it's destruction, so she didn't really have a frame of reference for how the repairs were going. That being said, it was an impressive little town. What had once been splintered wreckage was now a stilted hamlet on the sea, complete with streets, avenues and houses. Look at it for long enough, and you could almost forget how effortlessly Sin had almost wiped it out completely.  
"Um, no, not that." said Rikku, and then tapped her foot on the pier. "Look! A floor that doesn't move!"  
"Don't get comfortable." Lulu advised. "The ferry is just letting on and taking off passengers. We'll be leaving again soon."  
"I'll go stock up on sickbags." Rikku panned.   
" really are a lot of people, here." Yuna noticed aloud. "There didn't seem to be this many, the last time we were here."  
"Maybe they've had new people coming to stay?" Rikku suggested.  
"Maybe." said Lulu. "But it's the same here as it is in Besaid, then it means nobody's going to the temple here anymore, either."  
"And why would they?" Yuna asked. "Sin, what they all prayed for, is gone, and Yevon's deserted them. Now almost nobody has any faith left anymore"  
Lulu nodded. "Let's go for a walk." she suggested.

_Time passed. Braska did his best to raise Yuna as a single father, though he wasn't able to educate her on her Al Bhed heritage as much as he was able to do so for her Yevonite side. Braska also spent more and more time in the temple, vowing that he would do whatever it takes to become a Summoner and defeat Sin, and that this time it really would be forever.  
As a consequence, Yuna found her childhood begin to get lonely. She found it hard to make friends, since a lot of the other children's parents had warned their children to stay away from "the Al Bhed mongrel". There was still her father, he wasn't around much, but made up for it whenever he was. Yuna grew, and as she turned seven, Braska's pilgrimage became more and more imminent. Especially on the day when she heard he'd been appointed a Guardian by the temple. Even at that age, Yuna knew what having a Guardian meant. Her father's pilgrimage was inevitable.  
"Why do you need a Guardian?" Yuna asked abruptly one day when they were sitting on the steps in front of their house, on a hot summer day. Her father looked at her, then away again. "They help the Summoner to defeat Sin." was all he said.  
"Can't you do it alone?" Yuna asked. Braska grinned at her naiveté.  
"No, I can't." he said. "Nobody's that strong. But if I become a Summoner, maybe I will be strong enough to do it, and the Guardian will protect me on journey there."  
"Journey to where?" Yuna asked. Braska glanced at her once more, and then pointed north. Over beyond the city walls, past the vast miles of Macalania Forest and the Calm Lands lay the frozen menacing Mount Gagazet, shrouded in clouds, snow and ice. Yuna had heard that's where Ronso came from, though she'd never actually met one, she wondered what they were like.  
"Zanarkand." he announced. "Past Gagazet lies the city of lost dreams. The cradle of civilisation. It's corruption by machina and evil led to the birth of Sin. Ironically, it's also there where your I will find the implement of Sin's destruction, the Final Aeon."  
Yuna thought long and hard about this. A lost city! And only on the other side of the mountain, too. But the journey must be a dangerous one, or else more people would go there and the lost city wouldn't be so lost. That must be why Summoners like her father needed Guardians.  
"Who is he?" Yuna asked. "Your Guardian?"  
"A Samurai named Auron." Braska replied. "I know him well. He was once a Warrior Monk of Yevon, and was even once in line to become second in command of the Warrior Monks. But he chose another path. He is young, but strong. I have faith in him."  
Yuna listened, and idly wondered if she would ever meet Auron. Still being just a child, all the talk of lost cities, Summoners and Guardians exited her. "Do you think I could be a Guardian when I grow up?" she asked him.  
Braska looked at her sadly "Hopefully by the time you're grown up, Yuna, we won't need Summoners or Guardians anymore. With luck, I will see to that."  
He got up and went back inside._

"It wasn't until a long time later that I realised" said Yuna. "He was sad, because he was talking about my life, that he would never get to see."  
They were walking around the Kilika woods, just talking and waiting for when the boat would resume it's voyage to Luca. Rikku had pointed out that the fiend population was down in Kilika too, and that it wouldn't be long until the trees started to suffer the drought too.  
"That must have been the first time you ever heard about Zanarkand." said Lulu.  
"You're right." confirmed Yuna. "And it captivated me even then"

_Yuna wasn't really as interested in becoming a Summoner as she was hearing more about Zanarkand. It captivated her interest, and she tried to learn more about it, wanted to learn as much as she could. She asked a Guardian once, when she was praying at the temple, but she had been unable to tell Yuna anything new. That Guardian had only ever been on one pilgrimage before, and that had failed when her Summoner had given up in Djose.   
All Yuna knew was that Yevon said it was a holy place. When Bevelle was still only new, Zanarkand was an old city. The city had been fabulous with machina once, but it was through the use of this machina that Sin came, destroyed the city and scattered the hyuman race all over Spira. And that was all, only Yevon's Garden Of Eden myth and nothing else. They didn't say why only Summoners and their Guardians could go there, or what lay there now. That was all she could find out, and all she was likely to ever know.   
Then one day, when her father began his pilgrimage, for the first but not the last time in her life, she met a man who came from Zanarkand._

_"People say it's nothing but ruins now" said Yuna, confused.   
Jecht laughed. "People_ think _they know a lot more than they really do. Who are you gonna believe, some priest, or a guy who's really from there, huh?"  
"So it's not a ruin?" Yuna asked, feeling elated.  
"Course not!" exclaimed Jecht. "I was there only last week. though, according to that Auron guy, and just about everyone else here, my last week was a thousand years ago. I guess you can't all be lying, but it's just a big headache to think about. Man, I need a drink."  
They were standing on the Highbridge in Bevelle. It was just before dawn, and the city was still sleeping. Braska was here, conversing with a priest from the temple. His Guardian, Auron, wasn't here. He was elsewhere, stocking up on last-minute provisions for the journey. There was someone else, though   
Jecht was from Zanarkand, or at least believed he was. He'd told his story countless times. He got up one morning, and went out to sea in the boat for some training. The next thing he knew, this giant sea creature was coming towards him. At first, he thought it was a whale, but no whale grew that big. Terrified (though he never told anyone that's what he felt at the time) Jecht tried to get away, but there was no avoiding the massive beast. He was swallowed by the gigantic fiend, like some strange Jonah. But rather than die, something extraordinary happened to him. He felt awash in light, and many bizarre sensations. He was heavier than he ever felt in his life, and despite feeling drowsy, more aware than ever before. And then for a long time, nothing.  
He awoke alone in the Sea off the coast of Bevelle, and almost drowned, before finally succeeding in making it to shore. He found himself lost, a stranger in a strange land. The people here knew about the monster he had encountered, Sin. They attributed his rants about coming from Zanarkand to Sin's toxin. Depressed, lost and bewildered, he eventually found some degree of familiarity in a local bar, where he proceeded to get drunk. When he couldn't pay, a drunken brawl had ensued, the guards were called, and Jecht was hauled into prison.  
He would have remained there, only by random chance, a newly appointed Summoner by the name of Braska heard about him. Braska was about to start a pilgrimage across Spira towards Zanarkand, and, against his Guardian, Auron's objections, wanted Jecht to join them. Jecht agreed, and Braska paid his bail.  
Braska had introduced Jecht to his daughter, and the two of them hit it off immediately. Yuna, who wanted to know everything about Zanarkand never stopped with the questions. Jecht was happy to oblige. "You know, I've got a son your age at home." he said. "I think you two'd like each other" he stopped then, feeling suddenly guilty. It wasn't right that he should have a much better relationship with someone else's child, and he still couldn't talk to his own. He promised himself, however, that when he returned to Zanarkand, he would try.  
"And what's there, in Zanarkand?" Yuna asked. "I keep asking people, but they never say what's there, exactly"  
Jecht thought about it for a second, fondly recalling home. "Well, buildings, like any city. Though not like here. Here they're still kind small. Even that big tower in the middle over there has got nothing on the buildings in Zanarkand." he said, pointing to the Palace of St. Bevelle, the Heart of Yevon, where after the passing of a decade Yuna would be forced to marry a force of evil, and then rescued by Jecht's own son.  
"Ah, how could I forget?" Jecht slapped his forehead. "The Blitzball Stadium!"  
"There's a Blitzball stadium in the lost city?" Yuna marvelled. "Is it like the one in Luca?"   
Jecht shrugged. "Hell if I know. I don't even know where Luca is. But I'll tell you this, there's no stadium anywhere that's as good as Zanarkand Stadium. It's simply massive, and the roof even opens for a nice clear night like tonight, or it can close on a rainy one so the crowd can still enjoy the game. And it's always lit up, even at night! Great blitzball tournaments are held there, and the stands are always full!"  
Yuna stared in wonder. If the Zanarkand in her mind was even a fraction like the real one, it still must be an incredible sight. "Wow, the people of Zanarkand must really love Blitzball"  
"Of course they love it, they come to see ME play, I'm the best!" yelled Jecht, grinning.   
"The best?" Yuna was in awe.   
"Yep! Check this out!" Jecht announced, then started looking around. "Uh ah." He found what he was looking for, a children's ball, left over from when children played here the evening before. It wasn't exactly a professional blitzball. It lacked the dimples that aided it's dexterity, but it was good enough. Jecht picked the ball up, looked at Yuna, who watched in anticipation, and grinned once more.   
Jecht kicked the ball, and it hurtled down the Highbridge that led back towards the palace. It slammed into the wall and bounced, heading back the way it came. Jecht punched it hard the second it returned, and it rocketed back down to the palace again. Jecht then vaulted, leaping high into the air and spinning like an Olympic gymnast. The ball bounced off the wall a second time, and returned, it's trajectory taking it high into the air, towards the spinning Jecht. As the ball approached, Jecht opened out his leg and kicked the ball, booting it high into the air. He dropped back to the ground and the ball sailed high over the roofs of the houses.   
Jecht turned back to Yuna, who stared in amazement, before applauding. "What was that?" she asked.  
"The Sublimely Magnificent Jecht Shot Mark III." he announced, proudly. "Very difficult shot to do, but when you pull it off, it's a guaranteed goal. And nobody else can do it but me."  
"It's going to take more than fancy blitzball crowd-pleasers to complete this journey." said the temple priest. "Be on your guard, and protect Summoner Braska."  
"Yeah, yeah, I got the lecture already." said Jecht. He turned away, looking for Auron, as if he was anxious about his return.  
Yuna was staring at Jecht, when Braska gently placed a hand on her shoulder. She turned around and saw him kneeling down in front of her. "Yuna." he said. "It's time to go. You have to go home now, and I have to go defeat Sin."  
"When will you be coming back?" Yuna asked.  
"You'll see me again." Braska replied, a man not used to letting his emotions show. "I promise."  
Even at that young age, Yuna had learned to smile when she was feeling sad.  
"The priest will take you home." Braska continued. "The temple will look after you, make sure you'll be alright, and taken care of. I've always wanted the best for you. Do what you must do, the way you want to do it. Doors will always open themselves to those who do. Listen close, Yuna. Your future is yours to make. Live the way you want to. I'll be proud of you, whatever you do in life. Whatever happens, Yuna, your father loves you."  
Yuna didn't know what to say. She hugged her father goodbye, and then the priest took her hand, and led her back home. She never saw Braska wipe his eyes, and Jecht ask if he was okay. After that, Auron returned and the pilgrimage began.   
Auron had found what Jecht asked him to get. "Some kind of recording device" he'd specified, and Auron had brought him a video sphere. Jecht quickly learned the controls, switched it on and recorded the beginning of Braska's journey._

They reboarded the ship at sunset, and once again set off for Luca. Rikku was again ill, so Lulu suggested she go below decks to the centre of the ship, where she would feel less movement.  
Yuna and Lulu in the meantime, went back up to the observation deck, and Yuna continued her story.  
"He really must have been dedicated to his quest, to leave a child alone, like that." said Lulu to herself, and noticed Yuna looking at her. "Braska, I mean."  
Yuna looked away, towards the red sun sinking below the waves. "It wasn't his pilgrimage he was dedicated to" she said. "He wanted me to live a long, full life. I couldn't do that, with Sin in the world. I think I think he thought that he couldn't do a good job raising me on his own but that he could see to it that I life a full, long life"

_Yuna spent so much time alone after that. She had to spend her time between the temple and her home. She became good at living by herself, which was sad for someone so young. She was never in any trouble, as nuns from the temple would always take care of her.  
Every day, she'd go up to Highbridge, where Braska had left. Of course, he never did return, but she went there anyway. It was a strange way of trying to feel close to him, or hope for his return._

  


_Shirts in the closet, shoes in the hall  
Mama's in the kitchen, baby and all  
Everything is everything  
Everything is everything  
But you're missing_

_ When you're a child, everything is so much bigger. Even time. Half hours feel like hours. Days are so much longer for a child. A month may as well be a year. Childhood itself is an epoch, taking longer to pass than the rest of our lives, it sometimes feels.  
Yuna's days were like this. Endless time, empty and lonely days repeated over and over. There times when she was even unable to tell the days apart. She was surprised on a few occasions, to find a weekend had passed which felt like an entire week. _

_Coffee cups on the counter, jackets on the chair  
Papers on the doorstep, but you're not there  
Everything is everything  
Everything is everything  
But you're missing_

_ This cycle of lonely days repeated constantly. And she heard nothing from her father. She asked at the temple, and they said they had heard no word. But that in itself was a good sign, meaning that her father's pilgrimage was continuing uninterrupted. Yuna was told to be proud of her father, to pray that he should complete his journey and bring the Calm soon._

_Pictures on the nightstand, TV's on in the den  
Your house is waiting, your house is waiting  
For you to walk in, for you to walk in  
But you're missing, you're missing  
You're missing when I shut out the lights  
You're missing, when I close my eyes  
You're missing, when I see the sun rise  
You're missing_

_ Yuna prayed for Braska, but sometimes she would feel a shameful and selfish wish that her father would quit his pilgrimage, and that she would be sitting out on the Highbridge and see him one day returning. After all, it wasn't without precedent that Summoners quit their journey. But then Yuna remembered that it would be greedy and selfish of her, that if her father quit, Sin would continue it's rampage, and more people would die. So instead she did as the temple bade, and prayed for Braska to defeat Sin. _

_Children are asking if it's alright  
Will you be in our arms tonight?_

_She was praying that her father would never return, which the opposite of what she wanted more than anything else._

_Morning is morning, the evening falls I got  
Too much room in my bed, too many phone calls  
How's everything, everything?  
Everything, everything  
You're missing, you're missing_

_So many days passed. Weeks, months. Who knew? Not Yuna. She just lived through the same lonely days, one after another. Spending her time between the temple and her house. The temple weren't her family, and the house was like a cavern, dwarfing her. Big, silent, and empty. This was where her family had once been whole. Now they were gone.  
Three months passed to day since Braska began his pilgrimage, and Yuna was sitting at the table by herself, when she heard a colossal roar. The ground shook underfoot, and the furniture and windows rattled. She rushed outside, as did so many other people in Bevelle, and looked northeast past the city walls to the Calm Lands. There, she knew, as so many others did, her father was battling Sin. The beast roared again, and suddenly there came a blinding flash._

_God's drifting in heaven, devil's in the mailbox  
I got dust on my shoes, nothing but teardrops_

_ A shockwave thundered through Macalania Forest and rattled the city, and the flash died down. A colossal cheer went up, and people celebrated. Sin was dead. Yuna smiled. Her father had done it. Braska had defeated Sin._

"I remember that day, too." said Lulu. "Yevon sent word to all the temples in Spira. The head of the temple came rushing out and told us that the Calm had come. The whole village cheered and celebrated. Some of us asked about the Summoner and Guardians who had accomplished this."  
"That must have been the first you heard of my father." Yuna suggested.   
"I just wish my mother had lived to see the Calm." said Lulu. 

_Many hours later, Bevelle was still celebrating. There were street parties on every corner. Those who knew Yuna was Braska's daughter congratulated her. They told her she should be happy. Her father had just brought joy to everyone in Spira. He was a true hero.  
And then she caught herself, and realized that he would never be coming back. Her father was dead. And now she was truly alone.   
She couldn't sleep that night. That house too empty, it would be empty forever. The sounds of festivity were almost muted by the walls. Empty rooms. A house that had once been for a family, now for just an orphan.   
She got up and left the partying and the celebrations behind. She went up the Highbridge, which was deserted. Below her, the city was still rejoicing. She couldn't join in. It was selfish, but she couldn't be happy that Spira was saved. Her parents were gone forever.  
Yuna looked across to the northeast, and saw the Calm Lands, and the fields where he father had fought Sin. Where her father had died, and left her all alone. She tried to stop herself, but couldn't help it. She began to cry, releasing all the loneliness she'd kept inside her, and the grief she'd felt for losing her parents. Everyone had been telling her to be happy, but how can you be happy when you're all alone, and orphaned. So she sat there, weeping and knowing she couldn't stop.  
That was when she heard heavy footsteps, and a shadow fell over her. She looked up, and through her tears she saw a monster towering over her. A colossal blue-furred fiend, it's body peppered with wounds that looked recent. It's face was leonine, save for one broken horn jutting out of it's forehead. It looked at her with fierce ashen-yellow eyes. She heard a low growl in the back of it's throat, and then it began to speak.  
"I am looking for the daughter of Braska." said the monster. Yuna cried, scared. It frowned at her, then knelt down before her, examining her. "Why you cry?" it asked. "Can Kimahri help?"  
Yuna dried her tears. "What's a Kimahri?" she asked, quietly.  
"Kimahri is Ronso." it replied. "Kimahri travel long from Sacred Mount Gagazet, looking for the daughter of Braska."  
"A Ronso" gasped Yuna, and stared at him. Kimahri shuffled, unused to dealing with children. "I" she began. "I am Yuna, Braska's daughter."  
Kimahri nodded. "Kimahri was asked to take you as far from Bevelle as possible." he said.  
"Asked?" said Yuna. "By who?"  
Kimahri looked back toward Gagazet, the home he had lost, and where he had received a new destiny. "The wish of a man facing death."  
Then there could be no doubt about it. Her father was definitely dead. She would never see him again. Yuna began to cry again, silent this time. Quiet tears streamed down her cheeks.  
Surprisingly, Kimahri just held her quietly. All he did was sigh to himself. In this time where everyone else in Spira was celebrating, these two had found each other, the only ones to have lost their families, and left with nowhere to go in life._

_The fifteen-year-old Ronso helped her to pack. Yuna left the empty house forever, and together they journeyed the roads of Spira towards Besaid. On this journey, Yuna actually learned to smile and mean it again. Occasionally, they were met by fiends, and Yuna was awed by what an incredible fighter Kimahri was. For someone so strong, she wondered how he had sustained so many recent wounds, and why his horn was broken.  
They made an unusual partnership. A Ronso teenager and a Hyuman child. Kimahri was the one who did all the walking, with Yuna on his shoulders. They travelled through Macalania, and Kimahri was not bothered about taking the long way around the Thunder plains. They reached the Moonflow, and crossed it on Shoopuff.   
There was a scary moment when Yuna fell into the water, and Kimahri leaped in to save her. She thanked him, and laughed at how funny he looked with his fur all dripping wet. Yuna jumped in again deliberately after that. He fished her out for the last time, and stared at her, wondering why she was giggling at him. Then he grinned, stood up and she stopped. He shook himself clean, water flying off his fur and showering her. She laughed and protested at the same time. Kimahri noticed it was the first time she'd laughed since her father died._

_Eventually, they arrived at Besaid Island. As someone who'd lived her whole life in the city, Yuna was amazed. It was so pure and beautiful. An idyllic paradise. As Kimahri led her to the village, he noticed people stared in amazement at seeing a Ronso so far from Gagazet. But aside from that, they were very welcoming, especially of Yuna, who instantly became enamoured by the island.   
In the village, she saw children her own age. Well, older than her, but younger than Kimahri. Two boys playing blitzball, and a girl long midnight-black hair who was watching them. Kimahri noticed it too. Children her own age. Yuna would really like it here.  
They went to the temple first, where Kimahri planned to leave Yuna in their care.  
"Of course, it is unusual to see a Ronso so far from Gagazet." said the head of the temple. "But indeed, God's doors are open to all his flock, and every child of Yevon is welcome."   
"Yuna is without parents." said Kimahri, indicating her behind him. She was quiet, staring at the temple, noticing how different it was to the one in Bevelle. "It was her father's wish that Yuna live here in Besaid Village."  
The priest nodded, glanced at the girl, then back at Kimahri. "Of course, the temple doesn't usually cater to orphans, but perhaps the nuns shall-"  
"Yuna's father is Braska." Kimahri announced, tactfully. The priest stopped. Several of the other parishioners looked up from their prayers.  
"The High Summoner?" the priest gasped. "Of course! If that is his wish, then Yevon will of course grant it. She will be well looked after in the temple. She'll be given warm food, a warm bed and a full education. Besaid Temple will be proud to honour Lord Braska, and his kin."  
Kimahri turned and looked down at Yuna, who stared back at him. "Yuna will be safe here." he told her. "Kimahri has kept his promise."  
"" Yuna began. "What are you going to do now?"  
In all honesty, Kimahri himself didn't know where his path led from here. He had kept his promise to the dying Samurai, Auron. That had been a chance meeting, and in his empty life it had taken him this far. Whatever lay beyond, he couldn't see...   
The boat for Luca would be leaving soon, he remembered. "Kimahri will" he said. "Kimahri must go." His massive feet thumped loud footsteps on the stone floor as he walked towards the exit.   
"No" Yuna whispered. "No!"  
She ran after him, grabbing a hold of him in an attempt to stop him from leaving her. The Ronso paused, and stared down at her, clutching his foot. "Everyone leaves me." she explained, her eyes ringed with the promise of tears. "Everyone I know goes away in the end." she pleaded, sadly. "Don't go Don't go"  
Kimahri sighed, looking at her, then at the exit, then back to Yuna again. He had nowhere to go, and she needed him. No, not just that. They were the only thing close to family each other had left. He locked eyes with her a little longer.  
"For Yuna." he said. "Kimahri will stay."  
Joy washed away her sadness, and her grasp became a hug. And from that day, until the defeat of Sin, he stayed, always protecting her and always by her side. He became more than just her Guardian. He became her friend._

"You know the rest." said Yuna. "I stayed in a room at the temple, unpacking, and then went outside to see the village. I met you just after that. I remember you wore your hair over your face, even back then."  
"Yes, I remember." said Lulu. "Chappu and Wakka were playing Blitzball, and Chappu suggested a game of Boys against Girls."  
"They beat us so badly." said Yuna smiling.   
"I never played another game of Blitzball." said Lulu, smiling and nostalgic.  
"You loved him even then, didn't you?" Yuna asked.  
Lulu nodded. "Different times." she explained. "We now live in an age without Sin. But back then, you couldn't take anything precious for granted. You had to get a lifetime's worth of love, in whatever amount of days you had."  
"Yes." said Yuna. "I know."  
They fell quiet then, no sound but the seagulls and the wind in the sails. It was a pleasant night on beautiful calm seas. Lulu pointed to a glow on the horizon. "Look." she said. "You can see the lights of Luca. We'll have reached it by morning."  
"I don't feel like sleeping." said Yuna. "I'm not tired. And besides It's a beautiful night."  
"You're right." said Lulu. "We should be thankful that we're here to appreciate it"

_"We stayed up for some time after that, talking and enjoying the night air. Yuna was learning that life was finally moving on, or maybe the trip was just distracting her from sadness. We talked for many hours, and by the time we retired to our rooms to sleep, the glow of Luca was much closer.  
It would be there where we would see old faces, and our journey would take a surprising turn. The glow of Luca was deceptive warmth, promising happier times over the horizon. Nothing could be further from the truth. Since it was in Luca where we first learned about the sinister darkness from the past, and witnessed what it would unleash upon the world"_

  


* * * * 

  
"Utikisama (The Moon)" written and composed by Nobuo Uematsu. Performed by Rikki. Copyright Squaresoft and Square Enix.  
"You're Missing" written, composed and performed by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Copyright Bruce Springsteen.  



	5. Drunken With The Blood Of Saints

**Chapter III - "Drunken With The Blood Of Saints"**

_"And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all who have been slain on the earth."_   
- Revelation 18:24

_"Come as you are, as you were,  
As I want you to be  
As a friend, as a friend, as an old enemy  
Take your time, hurry up  
The choice is yours, don't be late  
Take a rest as a friend as an old memoria_

_Come dowsed in mud, soaked in bleach  
As I want you to be  
As a trend, as a friend, as an old memoria_

_And I swear that I don't have a gun  
No I don't have a gun_

_Memoria, Memoria, Memoria" _  
- Nirvana

It possibly could have been considered Hell.  
This place here was the deepest and darkest possible corner of the Farplane. A place far removed from the everlasting vision of paradise where the pyreflies congregated in unending rapture as their living relatives looked on. Far away from beautiful flower fields and crystalline waterfalls was a place where the pyreflies continual song fell silent. A place so dark and empty even their brilliant light dimmed to a dull grey. No souls would ever abscond the fields of paradise, leave them far behind and choose to come to this dark realm.  
None, except for this one who chose to.

Somewhere in perdition, the pyreflies gathered.

_Not all of Yuna's story happened when I was around her. Her tale is an ostentatious one, with many characters and many events, not all of which occurred with Yuna, myself, or even either of us present. But they are all necessary for you to hear, in order to fully understand Yuna, and why she did the things she did.   
Those who were witness at the time told these events to me months, and in some cases even years later. The telling of Yuna's story has many voices._

He scratched his forehead and sighed, then returned to looking at the sky. The sun hung bright and burning over the trees of the Moonflow forests, and over the Guado city of Guadosalam.  
The trees could feel the beginnings of the drought setting in. And the Guado, who were more plant than animal in nature could certainly feel it. But rain would come eventually. The drought would break. All things must pass.  
_ All things must pass_ he thought to himself. To become the shining star that lights the way for all the peoples of Spira was the promise fate made to Lord Seymour. Why did something as good as _that_ have to pass? He turned and walked back inside, and started to reflect, wondering on just where it had all gone wrong. His name was Tromell Guado, and he had been servant to the longest line of Guado families that had governed the Guado tribe for generations. A family that was now extinct.  
And with it, Tromell's purpose in life.

Such a thing is despair, the brother of hate. Much like the counterpart of love, despair too grows in the heart, gnawing away at the essence of a person. A spiritual cancer that if untreated, autocannibalises the soul, devouring a personality until nothing remains but a dead void.  
In these days of the Eternal Calm, a soul in enough despair to seek the release of it's own destruction would be a rare, if not impossible find. When Sin ravaged the world, there was no shortage of those willing to take their own lives, rather than live with the suffering Sin inflicted in them. In a world where life after death was not a belief but a guarantee, there were many in pain who would easily choose the Farplane over Spira given the opportunity.  
But not now, not in this world filled with promise. The Summoner Yuna had turned the key and unlocked the potential for people throughout the world to live in happiness for the rest of their lives. In this world, a soul ridden with despair was a nigh on impossible find.  
Except for this one. This one was perfect. It was observed and studied, and found to be ideal.   
_Yes_

The pyreflies gathered.

And on the streets of Bevelle, a woman begged.   
Not for food or for money, but for faith. Much like Yuna, Shelinda had also seen the temples deserted as people's faith wavered like an old plant under the hot sun.   
When Yevon was in it's death throes, she had been promoted to captain of the guard, a task she was wholly unsuited to. She was later given a new job, under Isaaru's reforms. But there were days when even the looming temple in Bevelle was empty of all but her and the sound of her prayers. Other people had become disillusioned, and turned away, but her own faith remained unbroken, as had her faith in people. She believed in people, and that when push came to shove, they would eventually do the right thing. Her faith would soon be put to the test, but not today.  
Today Shelinda was trying to hand out flyers with passages from Yevon's teachings to passers-by, but was being largely ignored. Sometimes people would take one, glance at it, disinterested, and then throw it away. Some took a flyer just to be polite. The few who genuinely cared, were very few indeed.  
"God hasn't turned away from people." she pleaded, handing out a flyer to a woman who just waved her hand away and carried on her business. "Even when people don't believe in God, He believes in people. Yevon's Fourteenth Teaching states that it is not those who believe in Him that are worthy of Him, but that He is worthy of those that believe. please"  
Her pleas fell on deaf ears. It was foolish of her to try to read people the words of a false saviour. Yu Yevon had been falsely hailed for a millennium as a prophet, a messiah and the path to salvation. He had been praised, when in truth no one man in history throughout the many worlds across the universe had been the direct cause of so much suffering and death to millions of people for a span of ten centuries. His teachings weren't even his, but ghostwritten in his name. Forgery had been accepted as apocrypha and spread to all the people of Spira.  
Shelinda, however, chose to look at it from a different perspective. What did it matter who wrote them and why? The _words_ had given solace to people for centuries. No matter who wrote them, they were still important to helping people in their lives.  
She sighed and wiped her brow, removing her habit from her head and letting her bright brown hair drift free. Looking up into the cloudless sky, and silently wondering if she should just go home and get out of the heat.   
Loud, heavy footsteps jarred her from her thinking. She turned, and saw a Ronso walking along the path. A Ronso that wasn't a Blitzball player was a rare sight to see outside Mount Gagazet. She had never been there, but the mountains made Shelinda think of cold and ice, and it suddenly sounded like a nice place to be.  
The Ronso's large shadow fell over her as he passed, and Shelinda realized she recognised him. "You're Lady Yuna's Guardian, are you not?" she asked him, with his back turned to her. He stopped pacing, then turned and looked over his shoulder at her. "I'm sorry, I don't know your name." she said. "Have you come to pray at the temple?"  
Kimahri turned his head back away from her, shook his head and continued to walk away. He heard her sigh in sadness, in her belief that she had offended him. In truth, she hadn't.  
He just had nothing to say.  
His broken arm hurt again, and for a moment, he wondered if it was healing right. Kimahri was right-handed, but even with his left hand he was still strong enough to kill a fiend, skin it and make a sling. Even with his battle ability reduced by half, he was still twice as strong as even the strongest member of any other non-Ronso race.   
He couldn't go back to Gagazet, because of what had happened to him there...   
That he didn't like to think about. So he had come here, looking to book passage on a ship heading for Besaid, so that he may see Yuna again. She would ask about his arm, and his other injuries. He would have no choice but to tell her what had happened to him when he had returned home. Knowing Yuna, she would then try to intervene, but he would ask her not to, for his sake. He was not returning to ask her for help. He just wanted to be by her side again, in the only place he belonged.  
Kimahri heard Shelinda resume pleading with passers-by, then stopped and shook his head again. Yuna would never have acted like that in Shelinda's place. When something needed to be said, she knew how to stop and make people listen. Kimahri turned around, walked back to Shelinda and stood in front of her.  
"Y-yes?" she asked, surprised, then couldn't help but stare at him. A broken arm, and fresh scars. This Ronso had been in a bloody fight, and not very long ago, either. He reached out and took her flyers from her, then stood beside her and began silently handing them out, thrusting them in front of people, who were startled, but quickly took the paper from him. After all, a Ronso twice the size of man is a lot harder to ignore than a short, soft-spoken and timid woman.

"Let me get this right." said Isaaru. "You want to _buy_ our ships from us?"  
O'aka the XXIII and his brother Wantz stood before the Grand Maester of Yevon and nodded. "It's the spirit of the Eternal Calm, free enterprise!" Wantz exclaimed.  
Isaaru looked at his brother, Maroda, who shrugged. "Hey, don't look at me." he said. "You're the Maester around here."  
This was the Headquarters of Yevon, in the Palace of St. Bevelle, a tower in the centre of the city that dominated the skyline. As Grand Maester of Yevon, former Summoner Isaaru sat on the throne that had belonged to Mika for half a century. But Isaaru was a humble young man by nature, and a throne was a grandiose and pretentious thing. All things were equal in the eyes of faith, and so a throne was just wrong. A throne over the humble followers... it wasn't right. Sitting in it made him feel awkward. He was genuinely starting to think about doing away with it, when the brothers O'aka and Wantz had scheduled an appointment with the Maester to discuss the purchase of buying out the Yevon-funded ferries.  
"With Sin no longer in the seas, travel by boat's become increasingly popular." Wantz pointed out. "So me and me brother, we saw the potential and decided to go for it!"  
"He means I saw it first and asked what 'e thought, your lordship." O'aka corrected.  
"Ships aren't cheap, you know?" said Isaaru.  
"Quite right." replied O'aka. "But I'm willing to spend every bit 'o Gil I've saved by trying to fund the O'aka merchant empire on the O'aka XXIII Sea Trading Company!"  
"I thought we were going to call it O'aka & Wantz Traveller Ferries?" his brother asked.  
O'aka looked at his brother, then at Isaaru. "The title is still being decided, your Maestership, but we do 'ave the funds. Ships cost a lot to run, but as my mother said to me on her deathbed, she said you gots to spend money tae make money, she said."  
"She did _not_." said Wantz, rolling his eyes.  
"She did too and all!" snapped O'aka. "Anyways, like I said, they cost a lot tae run, and the church probably has a lot more tae be concerned about than a few boats, eh? Let the brothers O'aka take the matter, and the burden off your hands, so Yevon still has the Gil to spend on"  
"You can say it." said Isaaru. "Keeping the temples open. I know, we've been in a bit of financial trouble lately. And if we can't take solutions to our problems when we see them, then things will never get better. Tell you what, I'll have someone draw up a contract. Come back later on, and if you like what you see, we'll both sign, how's that?"  
"Excellent!" said Wantz with a grin.  
"Lovely!" O'aka cheered, raising both fists and squeezing them in victory, then turned to his brother. "Didn' I tell ye? What did I tell ye? I said that this time next year we'll be Gillionaires."  
"You say that all the time." said Wantz. "Come on, let's go get something to eat."  
Isaaru watched them go. "You know" he said. "If anyone was going to start buying things off the temples, I would have expected it to be that Rin guy."  
"The Al Bhed aren't very interested in getting the money to rebuild Home these days." Maroda explained. "Now that they're no longer 'heathens' they don't feel they need a refuge from persecution, and they can integrate into Spira just as well as everybody else."  
Isaaru eyed his brother, who he'd never known to be a fan of using big words. "And just who told you that?" he asked with a grin.  
Maroda flashed a knowing smirk. "A very cool and attractive green-eyed girl I met in a café last week. We actually first met her in Home, before it was attacked. Though you probably don't remember her."  
"One day the Al Bhed are kidnapping us in an attempt to stop the pilgrimages, and the next you're trying to date one." Isaaru observed. "Between that and people buying our property, if big changes come in threes, I can't help but wonder how big the next thing is going to be"

Tromell left his home, and began his walk toward the Farplane road. He was going to go see Maester Seymour again. The first time he had seen his Master there was not long after the beginning of the Calm. He had been deeply humbled by the fact that Lady Yuna had defeated Sin in spite of Yevon and the Guado, and not with their help, as what should have been.  
He was also told that two of her Guardians had died in the final battle. He felt He felt what? Jealously? No, not quite that. Just a odd sense that even to fall in such a battle was a strange honor, and those that fell should be hailed by Yevon, instead of hunted as they were. So he had gone to pay his respects. Sir Auron appeared when Tromell thought of him, and he sorrowfully offered his apologies to the man who many thought of as the greatest Guardian who ever was. The other Guardian, however, Tromell did not know well enough to even think of. He didn't even know his name  
Tromell's thoughts had strayed that day, and when thought of Seymour, Seymour appeared. So it was true. Lady Yuna had Sent him. Seymour's downfall had broken Tromell's heart. Tromell had served Seymour's family for most of his decades, and the last member of that family had turned away from a life of promise and embraced madness.  
Tromell loved Seymour. No, not in that way. He had loved him as a leader, and truly believed that he was the key to Spira's future. He was like a son to Tromell, or at least a nephew. Tromell had no children of his own, alas, a foolish choice. He had opted for a life of servitude to one family, instead of starting his own, as he really could have. Now the family he had served was no more, and he was too old for one of his own.  
He wandered up the Farplane road, not even replying to the greeting the guard had given him. He hadn't even heard the man, he was so lost in his own thoughts. His eyes didn't look up from the path, he just continued to walk, oblivious to the world around him.  
All the wrong choices he had made. All the mistakes. It all kept coming into his mind, over-riding any other thought he tried to think. His thoughts were locked in a permanent cycle of self-pity.  
When he entered the Farplane, he didn't even bother to look around. He had seen this beautiful spectacle so often in his life it had become a dull and routine experience. There were only so many times he could be spellbound by this window on Heaven. As usual, there were no other visitors to the Farplane today. No outsiders really bothered to come to Guadosalam anymore. People were too busy enjoying the Calm to come visit their deceased relatives. Maybe in time the visits would start up again, but for now people were too busy enjoying life to spend their time with death.

He appeared, no motion save for the blinking of his blue eyes. No words to reply to Tromell's. Nevermore would that soothful voice ever be heard in Spira. It was just an image of Seymour floating before him, and for a second Tromell wondered if there was something to what the Al Bhed always believed. Maybe the people who appeared really were just a reflection of what was in people's hearts. It didn't seem likely that the dead would have nothing to say about the affairs of the living.  
But he dismissed this heretic thought just as quickly. Tromell was an old man, set in his ways. The Al Bhed had been blasphemers for centuries before Tromell had even sprouted, and it was only in the last few months that anything had "officially" changed. The world had changed, but it was too late for him. He was one of the last Guado of his kind.  
"Lord Seymour, forgive me." he moaned. "If I had only taken action, saved you from falling into insanity"  
It just wasn't fair. Lord Seymour had been a good man. He was just corrupted. He was only a mortal man. If Tromell had helped, he could have helped change Seymour's path in life. Or at least, so he believed.  
He then began the futile wish that all who have lost someone inevitably wish for. The second chance. Everybody wants it, some even pray for it. But death is death, and it's a wish never granted. But that doesn't stop people.  
"If only there was something I could do" he said mournfully, before turning and walking away. The image of Seymour faded into nothingness behind him. "To make amends for my failings with you."  
Behind him came a soft wailing, the song of the pyreflies. They drew together almost instantly, and Tromell heard the impossible. For the first time, someone on the Farplane spoke.  
"Oh, but there is." came an elegant woman's voice.  
Tromell almost jumped with fright, then turned and stared wide-eyed at the figure before him. Her lips curved into an eloquent smile.

An hour later, he was sitting in his home, thinking about her proposal. Almost an offer he couldn't refuse. His hands were trembling, and he was silently wondering if this was really happening.   
A chance to give his life meaning! A chance to set right all the things that had gone wrong! It all seemed to be too good to be true, and for a moment he wondered if someone was playing a trick on him. But then, who would have known how he was feeling lately? Only the dead could hear the thoughts of the living. Of course, some of the other Guado had noticed he was very withdrawn lately. Pretty soon some of them were going to shake their heads, lost in shock and wonder if they could have changed anything if they had just tried to talk with him.  
The offer was too good to turn down. The Guado had been the protectors of the Farplane since the dawn of time, according to their history. There was nothing that history had recorded matching anything like this before. No-one who had ever appeared on the Farplane had ever spoken before. In fact, the more he thought about it, the more Tromell was surprised. He hadn't even been thinking about her. He'd certainly never even met her before.  
Trembling, he had asked her who she was, and when she gave him her name, he fell to his knees before her, and averted his eyes in an act of utter zeal. Then she had proclaimed him as worthy (Himself! Tromell Guado!) and told him of her proposal, and what one little thing he had to do to help change the world.  
And the more he sat there, his head resting his folded arms that lay on the desk in front of him, the more he thought about it. And he couldn't remember an exact moment when he concluded that he would do it, but that he was thinking about not about _if_ he did it, but what was going to happen to the world _when_ it was done. His mind finally made up, he decided Spira's coming Golden Age was something far too great and glorious to be delayed by one mere mortal Guado.  
Tromell got up to leave, almost feeling ashamed with himself for postponing history with his own insignificant and trivial thoughts, but he was feeling far too good to be weighed down by self-pity anymore. He felt elated, like a great weight was lifted from his shoulders. Truly, it was a sign that there really was order in the universe. He had wished for meaning in his life, and that very day it had come to him.  
He was feeling so exited, he almost walked out the door without a weapon. He paused, and honestly laughed at himself, a brief chuckle at his ignorant eagerness. He had almost rushed straight for the Farplane, told the Holy Messenger of his acceptance, and stood there embarrassed with empty hands.  
He scanned the room, and his eyes fell on a sabre, resting over a portrait of Lord Jyscal that Tromell himself had painted. The sabre was a gift from Lord Jyscal, and Tromell had been almost too humble to take it, but he had accepted at his Lord's insistence.   
He reached up with long, taloned Guado fingers and took it down, unsheathing it and staring at the blade, lost in its beauty, and his reflection in the blade. It was made of a weak but stunning metal, and encrusted with jewels and intricate designs. Completely useless in battle, but as a gift, especially one from the former leader of the Guado, it was priceless. Absolutely perfect.  
He sheathed the blade, and looked around the room one more time. Eventually, other Guado would come, asking why, so he decided to leave something for them. Rummaging through his desk, he found a blank sphere, switched it on and set it to record.   
When they inevitably came looking for answers, they would find one. They would just never be sure what to make of it.   
Tromell looked into the sphere, trying to imagine to face of any future person watching it, and felt a thrill. He realized it was because he wasn't saying it for any one person. He was going to address the ages. He was speaking to history itself.  
"I know what I am undertaking, utopia has a cost, and I hope this will be the price for utopia." he proclaimed, then switched the sphere off.   
He left the house feeling surprisingly good, the most upbeat he had felt since since he wasn't sure. Well, he had been pretty excited when Lady Yuna had agreed to marry Lord Seymour, but this was different. It was like a personal private Calm, the Summoner of this deed banishing the Sin of his remorse.  
Some of the other Guado greeted him along the way, and he greeted them cheerfully in return. Nobody could possibly have suspected what he was about to do, which would make the inevitable discovery even more baffling.  
He practically ran all the way to the Farplane, but when he got there, he paused for a second in shock. She was gone. For a terrifying second, he wondered what had happened, and that maybe he should call this off and never speak of it to anyone as long as he lived.  
But quickly, he was relieved to see the pyreflies gather again, and take the magnificent form of a beautiful and venerated woman. He smiled at her, and she returned his gaze, not quite smiling, but certainly at least offering a friendly face. If Tromell had more time to concentrate on her expression, he would have identified it as calculating.  
"I've considered your offer." he said in his voice, beaming with pride.  
"And you accept this." she said. It wasn't even a question.  
"Absolutely." replied Tromell with a smile. There was a strange mania, dancing in his eyes. The words he was saying and the deed he was about to do were running away from him, to the point that his rational thought was now just background noise, lost in the romanticism of it all.  
"You are truly worthy." said the woman. "I promise you this will change the world forever, and because you are the one who made it possible, your name will be honored for centuries."  
"It is more than a humble Guado such as myself could wish for." he said, drawing the sabre.  
"Anything more you wish to say?"  
Tromell smiled. "Only that what I do now, I do of my own free will, and for Spira." And with that, he raised the sabre, and instantly thrust it deep into his heart, impaling himself on Jyscal's gift. The blade pierced his heart, cut through his spine and thrust out his back, a bloody and gruesome sight.  
Tromell fell to the floor, lifeless before he even hit the ground. He lay sprawled on the ground, already his eyes looking glassy and dead. Even so, that manic smile remained. The only explanation people could come up with later when they found his body, was that Tromell had gone mad, for reasons that would forever be a mystery.  
But _she_ had watched him take his life, and even suggested he do it. She, a being of the millennia, _knew_ people, and knew how they would react when they learned the truth. Tromell's name would be spat at, and lost to the ages as anything other than an insult.  
And since Tromell had already embraced his death while still alive, there was no need for a Sending. His soul quickly departed the already cold body, and joined the others on the Farplane, while her pyreflies seized the opportunity in this momentary imbalance to finally break free, and once again return to Spira.

An exchange.   
That had been her offer to Tromell. His place in the world to be given up and substituted for another. Of course, Tromell had expected it to be Seymour who would be allowed to return in his place and work to usher in the Golden Age, but now it was far too late for him to do anything about that, wasn't it? Whatever became of his soul now was completely inconsequential. She smiled with malicious amusement and began to walk out of the Farplane and back out into the world once more.   
It never failed. Throughout history, it was always the same old story. The greatest bribe, and the easiest corruption was never done with money, or seduction. Too much effort had always been placed on these two, when in fact the most effective means of manipulating people was surprisingly the easiest.   
Just tell people what they want to hear, and they will do _anything_.  
Leaving the Farplane behind, she began to walk down the stone path, her bare feet barely even sensing the cold stone. Of course, she was still an Unsent. It was beyond even _her_ powers to truly bring someone back to life (How foolishly Tromell had easily accepted this belief was indicative of how pathetic the man truly was), but it was now safe to say that with Sin gone, she was now the most powerful being in all of Spira.  
Ah yes, in Spira once more. And so much to do.   
Her sinister laughter echoed down the road.

In the blistering heat of Spira's drought, a cold wind gusted from Guadosalam.

Yevon's ships had just been sold to O'aka's company. O'aka had invited the Maester into the city to share a drink in celebration, but Isaaru had refused. Like most Summoners, he was an ascetic, and didn't drink alcohol, but that wasn't the reason.  
He stood on the great balcony overlooking the city of Bevelle, and felt the weight of responsibility pressing on him. It was a fact, Yevon no longer controlled Spira. Which made some sense. Yevon was a religion founded to be the people's hope against Sin, and now that it was gone, Yevon had become a dinosaur religion, living beyond its time.  
But it had still some power, and while Isaaru didn't really believe the church had any function anymore, he was still its leader and could use his power to make a difference.   
He leaned forward, pressing his hands against the concrete wall and stared down at the city, able to make out the individual people going about their lives. Isaaru smiled in determination. He was their leader, they were looking to him for guidance, and he would not let them down.   
Isaaru was unique as a leader, in that he actually cared about Bevelle's people. He had been a Summoner. Caring about people was the reason why some people became Summoners in the first place. He had been one of the people, after all, it was only circumstance that had given him this position. But where others saw circumstance, Isaaru saw providence. Any other leader would have tried to hold Yevon together and keep it's power wielded over the people. Isaaru refused to be worshipped as a false idol like Mika had. Isaaru saw a different path, and wanted the church to serve the people instead. When he had noticed the drought setting in, he had ordered all of Bevelle's famous majestic waterways and fountains turned off, and the water conserved. Foolish waste was the first thing to go from the religion.  
The second was any notion of profit. The more he thought about it, the more Isaaru found himself disgusted with the church's wealth. Kilika was a good example. Yevon was so rich it could have afforded to rebuild Kilika five times over, but what had it done? Given Kilika it's blessings. Blessings are nice, but people were suffering, and while the church could easily have helped, it sat back and rested comfortably in wealth.  
"Never again." Isaaru vowed. He looked over towards the mountains. The sun would be starting to go down soon. Finally, some cool night air after the heat of the day.  
But the cold air came sooner than he thought. Isaaru first felt it as coolness on his face, which soon picked up and became a full-on gust. He gasped loudly in surprise and shifted his weight forward, leaning into the incredibly strong blasting wind that dragged his robes behind him and undid his topknot.  
Pyreflies rushed past him, even through him, and he turned around trying to see, but his thick brown hair whipped around in front of his face, annoyingly hindering his vision. He pulled his hair from his eyes just in time to see the pyreflies vanish inside the temple, and the wind stopped.  
Suspicious and somewhat alarmed, Isaaru quickly jogged back into the temple.

It only took him a matter of minutes to get down the long flights of stairs, but already Isaaru could hear  
_"Ie Yui   
Nobo Me No   
Ren Mi Ri   
Yoju Yogo   
Hase Teka Nae   
Kuta   
Mae"_  
The Hymn Of The Fayth?! Echoing up through the temple it came, the sound of many voices joined in prayer. The Hymn had not been heard since the Fayth disappeared, which meant people, probably the temple monks and nuns, were singing it. But why? Did it have something to do with that strange wind just now?  
Isaaru quickened his pace, running down the steps two at a time. He ran to the room where Mika's throne had once been, and found his brother Maroda arriving at the same time.  
"What's going on?" Maroda asked. "Why are you making them sing?"  
"It's not me, I just got here." Isaaru replied.  
The two brothers turned their heads, and began to walk cautiously toward the Holy throne. When they entered the room, it wasn't a sight either of them were prepared to see.  
Monks and nuns were everywhere, almost carpeting the entire massive floor. Some of them were bowed forward, their hands flat on the ground and pointed at the throne. Others were arching their backs and endlessly repeating the motion of the Yevon prayer with their arms. All of them were on their knees before the woman on the throne. All of them were chanting the Hymn Of The Fayth.  
"What's going on?" Isaaru asked loudly over the many voices, but nobody replied. Then he looked at the woman before them all. She was almost naked, dressed only in ribbons and strips of material. She had lots of jewellery, beads and trinkets that would make soft noises whenever she moved. She had no shoes, and her skin was beautifully pale. Her entire body seemed flawless, almost divine. Her hair was a striking bright silver, and the strands spread out in many directions, making her appear bigger than she actually was. The ribbons hanging from her waist were marked in Yevon symbols that Isaaru easily recognised as "Yevon" and "Darkness". When she turned her head and notice he and Maroda were the only ones not kneeling, Isaaru could see her eyes were a strange color, like white gold.  
"Who are you?" he asked.  
"You should recognise me, young Maester." she replied in a soft, charisma-laden voice. "You've served me all your life."  
She was right. Isaaru did recognise her, but from where? He'd certainly never seen her before, but he did know her image, because he'd seen it depicted many times before  
All over Spira.  
He looked up, at the two statues that clung to the arching dome of this immense room. The two founders of Yevon. Lord Zaon, on one side, dazzling in bright gold armor. And on the other side, his wife. The woman on the throne.  
"Lady Yunalesca." Maroda gasped, and she smiled at him and nodded.  
"That can't be." said Isaaru, shaking his head as his gaze fell to the floor, then back up at Yunalesca. "You've been dead. For a thousand years."  
"Died certainly, but dead is a little extreme." she replied.  
For the first time, some of the monks and nuns looked up from their worship, but not towards Yunalesca. They stared at Isaaru, who didn't notice how many eyes were upon him. He didn't see it because he was staring at Yunalesca, but Maroda did. He saw their gaze say it all. They were looking at Isaaru the same way some people looked at Maroda's Al Bhed girlfriend.  
The Maester is a disbeliever.  
"Brother, this is _kichiga_." Maroda muttered, but Isaaru's attention was elsewhere.  
"Why are you here?" Isaaru demanded.  
Yunalesca stood up, and the suddenly the air seemed to grow denser. She stretched out her arms, and her feet lifted from the ground, until she was floating over them.  
"I have returned to my flock, as prophesized in my father's teachings."  
_Absolutely crazy!_ Maroda thought. His head darted left and right, looking at the followers who stared up with Yunalesca in awe. Yu Yevon's teachings were _false_, how could they possibly believe her?  
"What prophecy?" Isaaru challenged.   
"Do not question the Saviouress!" hissed a voice close to him. One of the nuns.  
"I only wish to know, what prophecy?!"  
Someone, a male voice at the back of the room recited it without pause. "When mankind has attained purity and atoned for our misdeeds, Sin will be vanquished-"  
"Sin was defeated by an excommunicated Summoner with the help of machina and the Al Bhed!" snarled Maroda. "Surely you can't believe _that's_ in line with any of Yu Yevon's 'teachings'!"  
The speaker refused to be interrupted, only raising his voice louder over Maroda's. "Sin will be vanquished, and a Great Trial shall begin for Suffering Race, but the Saviouress, with the name of Night will come and fulfil her destiny, leading her people to salvation and bringing forth Spira's true Golden Age."  
"I have returned, as promised!" Yunalesca proclaimed, and floated higher up, and through the ceiling, heading for the temple roof. There was a stampede as the many monks and nuns rose to their feet to follow their Saviouress to the roof. In seconds, Maroda and Isaaru were left standing alone.  
"Brother, tell me you don't believe this." Maroda pleaded. "Tell me."  
Isaaru turned and looked at his brother. "There _was_ a prophecy." he said. "But it was only one line, buried in the texts of the teachings. But nobody ever truly believed it fit their time, so it was mostly forgotten."  
"Just tell me you don't believe this." continued Maroda. "I know faith is important to you, but you've never been the type for blind fanaticism."  
"You know me, Maroda." Isaaru sighed. "You know I believe if God gives you a brain He expects you to use it. You're right, Sin was beaten by completely un-Yevonly means. I'm the one who had to pardon Lady Yuna, _after_ Sin's defeat. Yu Yevon's teachings were ghostwritten, and now just because somebody comes along and acts one out, all of a sudden they're true? No, I don't like this, brother. I don't like this one bit."  
Suddenly, there came a loud noise, as if something from some great trumpet. A great horn was blowing somewhere, and the tune it played was the Hymn Of The Fayth.  
"Now what?" Maroda muttered, but Isaaru was already running, heading back up the steps to the roof of the temple, to find out just what was going on.

The people all over Bevelle heard the trumpeting too, and they all stopped whatever business they were going about and stared up at the temple, wondering what all the noise was. There was a figure floating just over the temple, but it was hard to make out.  
Something was happening. Something big.

Maroda and Isaaru reached the top of the stairs and ran out onto the Great Balcony. They couldn't move to get closer to Yunalesca, because of the amount of followers in their way. They tried in futile to move past, but just gave up and stood there, waiting for developments.  
Closer to Yunalesca, a trembling monk was holding a device that broadcasted video spheres, similar to the system used in Luca to transmit Blitzball games. The images of Yunalesca he recorded were being broadcasted all over Bevelle, as was his voice that trembling in wonder.  
"People of Bevelle, what you are seeing is no illusion!" he gasped. "Lady Yunalesca has returned to us, to fulfill her prophesized Second Coming! The Golden Age of Spira is about to begin!"

O'aka and Wantz were sitting in a pub when suddenly some woman had rushed in from the street, screaming at the bartender to turn on the sphere monitor. It clicked to life, and the watery image that filled the screen made everyone stand up and take notice.  
The two brothers could hear the voices throughout the pub gasping "Lady Yunalesca!"  
They dropped their drinks and without a word, quickly ran outside. Their sister had been a Summoner, a devotion to Yevon ran in the family. But at the same time, Yevon had cost them both a sister. It was easy for the church to proclaim her a martyr, and honored, but the church wasn't the bereaved one. Plus, O'aka had done time for dealing with Lady Yuna. Not something easily forgotten.  
So both of them had first-hand experience of Yevon hypocrisy. Which is why they were somewhat dismayed when they saw the sudden reverence for Yunalesca was sweeping through the entire city.  
"I tell ye something, me lad." O'aka muttered to his brother, under the gasping of the awe-struck crowds. "This don't feel right, not one bit."  
"How do we know this isn't just some Yevon trick to hang on to control of the people?" asked Wantz, suspicious.

They weren't the only ones distrustful of this proclaimed "Second Coming". Shelinda heard a low growl echo up from somewhere deep in Kimahri's throat. The Ronso dropped the flyers he'd been handing out and clenched the fist of his healthy arm.   
If he still had his spear, he would have hurled it all the way towards the palace like a javelin.  
"What is it?" Shelinda asked him, but Kimahri didn't reply. He was remembering possibly the toughest battle that had been fought on Yuna's pilgrimage, with the exception of the final battle with Sin. Yunalesca had turned into a Medusa before their very eyes when they had chosen not to do what she expected of them. And ten years ago, when Kimahri met Auron for the first time, the Samurai had been broken, battered and dying. It was Yunalesca that done it to him, because Auron had been following the second part of the Bushido code - the right of vengeance. As a fellow warrior, Kimahri was disgusted that Yunalesca had robbed Auron of his right to restore Jecht and Braska's honor.  
But Yuna had sent her. How was it that Yunalesca had been able to return from the Farplane? And what if Yunalesca was not the only one?  
"Bevelle no longer safe." Kimahri replied eventually, then looked at Shelinda. A look of utter confusion was etched on her face. Then she turned. Around her, several people were falling to their knees. It made no sense. She'd been handing out flyers all day under the hot sun, and almost everybody had ignored her. But then all it took was a single great vision, and people were instantly on their knees.  
This wasn't right. People were supposed to think about their faith and decide for themselves, and not suddenly fall to their feet and worship the first spectacle they see. Shelinda felt somewhat rejected, that her faith had persevered the drought while others had become practical atheists until the moment they say Yunalesca floating over the city. And she'd gained legions of followers almost instantly.

The Hymn Of The Fayth echoed throughout the city and, high above it, Lady Yunalesca reached out her hands and waved them in the Yevon prayer.

_It was the beginning of the end.   
While Yunalesca's appearance restored the faith of many who had lost theirs, there were some, like Isaaru, who had their suspicions. And few, like Kimahri, who knew the truth.   
That Yunalesca was the architect of the Spiral of Death. She was Yuna's nemesis, and a shadow from Spira's past. When eventually the truth of the Farplane and how she had returned was revealed, it was a horror far too dark for any nightmare to compare to.   
This was no Second Coming, and Yunalesca was no Saviouress. She was an Unsent demon in disguise, come back to damn us all._

  
  
"Come As You Are" written and performed by Nirvana, Copyright Geffen records


End file.
